Words by: Catherine Lewis
Since Disney’s acquisition of Fox in 2019, which gave Marvel their access back to the X-Men characters after selling the rights back in the 90s, fans have all been eagerly anticipating the announcement of Marvel’s “first” X-Men project, which will likely see new iterations of fan favourite characters gracing our screens.
Over on Instagram, a fan artist who goes by the username britedit has mocked up an amazing image of what it’d look like if we had the Man of Steel, Henry Cavill, take on the role of Cyclops.
It’s been a hot topic of discussion lately amongst fans, who’ve been debating over which character the actor would be most suited for, with favourites being Wolverine or the beam-shooting mutant himself, but this artwork surely has the potential to bring more people over to Team Cyclops.
While we’re all here thinking about Henry, let’s take a look at some behind the scenes of his other project, Netflix’s The Witcher.
The artist has produced two equally stellar versions of the hero – one kitted out in Cyclops’ iconic full body suit, and another with his hair out, as a throwback to his 90s costume, while also being more recognisable as the mutant we know from the movies. Both edits are super realistic, and you could be forgiven for thinking that they were actually leaked photos of the actor from an upcoming film.
Of course, other Instagram users are blown away with the work. “Wow… Never thought about him as Cyclops but that would be incredible! Because he’ll have part of his face always covered, so you wouldn’t just see Superman! That’s great,” wrote griemreaper. “Perfect casting choice! Great stuff!” added johnlv1127.
For now, there’s still nothing confirmed about who we might see cast as Cyclops going forward. Based on Tye Sheridan’s comments on his potential recasting last year, it seems quite unlikely that he’ll be staying in the role, as he’s happy to see a new actor take on the character.
It’s even been rumoured lately that Henry Cavill has met with Marvel over a new role, so perhaps this mockup is closer to reality than we might know. Regardless, I think we can all agree that no matter the casting choices, none of us can wait for some new X-Men content in our lives.