After being a key player in six X-Men films, it may be time for Mystique to get her own movie, according to franchise director Bryan Singer. During an interview on Empire’s podcast, Singer said, “I think [Mystique’s] right for [a solo movie], whether it’s Jennifer or not.” He included the “or not” to account for recent reports that actress Jennifer Lawrence might be done with the series after X-Men: Apocalypse, likely not wanting to spend the remainder of her youth undergoing hours in the makeup chair and reacting to green-screen armageddons.
Singer explained that Mystique is a great character because she “has this different view of the world. Xavier can get into Cerebro and look at the world, but he’d rather just teach classes and see the beauty of mutants and humans co-existing in his mansion in Westchester. Along comes Raven with a reality check on the state of the world. It opens up a lot of avenues.” True, but some fans may argue that these avenues have been properly investigated already. How many X-Men films can be made about Mystique deciding whether she’s aligned with the good mutants or the bad ones?
According to The Hollywood Reporter, another potential source of agitation among the core fanbase is that, in the comics, the character traditionally has been an outright villain and has worked much better as a member of a team than a standalone hero. (Though THR points out that Mystique did headline her own series in 2004-2005, where she simultaneously aided mutantkind and served her own agenda.) But, hey, Singer just made a movie where the traditionally towering Apocalypse was about 5’8”, so fan expectations apparently can go right to hell.