X-Men franchise producer and screenwriter Simon Kinberg has finally given the impression that the villain Mister Sinister might indeed be on his way soon. While speaking with CinemaBlend during the press tour for Logan the producer mentioned that there is some interest in finally giving the villain his feature film debut.
Kinberg also revealed that X-Force will indeed be R-rated featuring Deadpool and Cable. Allowing for more villains to dabble in darker plots and violence.
Speculation and rumors pointed towards Sinister showing up in Logan, only for director James Mangold to quickly debunk the talk as being completely bogus. We now know after watching Logan, Sinister isn’t the film but it’s alluded that his fingerprints contributing to the X-23 program.
Josh Boone’s X-Men: The New Mutants has Demon Bear as their villain and the yet to be announced X-Men: Apocalypse sequel will likely see the Dark Phoenix as it’s big bad.
We believe it’s doubtful that Sinister will be introduced in those two X-Men films, as the flamboyant villain has stronger ties to other mutants and could have a larger impact in other R-rated X-Men projects. Mainly, things like Deadpool 2 along with reported projects in development such as X-Force and Deadpool 3.
Also, Channing Tatum’s Gambit movie could easily use an R-rated makeover for Remy’s comic book origin before it’s expected production shoot next year.
There is some expectation that the Sinister role could be developed into a regular franchise player similar to Sir Ian McKellan and Michel Fassbender’s Magneto. Except, there really isn’t a moral conflict there, Sinister is a straight up bad guy with bad intentions. Committing mass genocide within the mutant population as to conform with his extreme take on Darwinism, leading to the massacre of the Morlocks.
Let’s be honest, it would be nice to see a well developed X-Men villain stick around longer than one film, given the time to plant their villainous roots into the franchise and grow as a character.
Sinister played the main bad guy in the recent Deadpool video game. He also plays a role in the comic book origins of Nathan Summers aka Cable, who is confirmed to play a large role in the upcoming Deadpool sequel along with the X-Force movie.
Considering, The Workshop in Deadpool was a for-profit mutant factory turning humans into mutant slaves paralleling the Genosha storyline. There is a strong possibility that Sinister’s Essex Corp. could be behind that operation and he is most likely already helping companies develop mutant cultivation programs as seen in the future in Logan.
Breaking Bad and Godzilla actor Bryan Cranston has suggested multiple times he’d love to play the role of Sinister.
Although, we not entirely sure he would land the part simply because he wants it. Nathaniel Essex just happens to have gained his powers in Victorian era England, so casting an actor who can play British feels like the smart move.
Why not hire former 007 Pierce Brosnan?
Pierce has recently been linked for Deadpool 2, while that same source couldn’t confirm what that role could be. Variety reporter Justin Kroll recently speculated his role might be a villain and Brosnan has indeed played villains in the past in films such as The Long Good Friday, The World’s End, and Survivor.
There is an existing X-Men character that could potentially bridge the Workshop and Sinister quite nicely.
Sugar Man, a mutant villain from the Age of Apocalypse (an alternate reality) and was a student of that world’s version of Mister Sinister and a master in genetics.
After traveling 20 years into the past/different reality he gives the formula for the “mutate bonding process” to The Genengineer (David Moreau), forcibly enslaving hundreds of mutants to the human Magistrates of Genosha. A fictional island off the coast of Africa where it’s mutant population was enslaved.
The Workshop could easily have direct connections to Sinister, Sugar Man, and even Genosha.
Screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick have previously confirmed that time travel will return in Deadpool 2 allowing for characters from the future to potentially show up in the present.
Two canon fodder villain groups led by Sinister for Deadpool and X-Force hack to pieces could include The Nasty Boys and The Marauders. The former making perfect sense for Deadpool sequel due to the name alone. It might make sense to mix-and-match the mutants into one single team, though.
The Marauders lineup consisted of Polaris (Lorna Dane), Scrambler (Kim Il Sung), Arclight (Philippa Sontag), Vertigo, Scalphunter (John Greycrow), Harpoon (Kodiak Noatak), Sabretooth (Victor Creed), and Mystique (Raven Darkhölme). Other eventual members were Chimera, Omega Sentinel (Karima Shapandar), Vanisher (Telford Porter), Frenzy (Joanna Cargill), Bushwacker (Carl Burbank), and Blockbuster (Michael Baer).
The Nasty Boys includes obscure mutant villains such as Gorgeous George (George Blair), Ramrod (Patrick Mahony), Slab (Christopher Anderson), Hairbag (Michael Suggs), and Ruckus (Clement Wilson). In the cartoon series, Savage Land Mutates and Marauder member Vertigo was part of the team.
Although, some may argue that due to Marauder’s connections to Remy LeBeau aka Gambit’s origins they might be more suited for his standalone film. This is why I’m sort of leaning towards seeing a revised version of the Nasty Boys.
Cain Marko aka Juggernaut almost made his rebooted debut in X-Men: Days of Future Past but instead was axed. Originally, Josh Helman was going to play Marko before the role was switched to Major William Stryker. Juggernaut got his powers during the Korean War, so having him connected to those Vietnam War scenes would have been a good fit.
Rumored X-Force screenwriter (and potential director) Joe Carnahan has developed quite a few comic book properties for 20th Century Fox over the years (Daredevil, Taskmaster, and Nemesis). One that he tried to put together was a Juggernaut project that never came together. There is a strong possibility he could circle back and include the character in X-Force if he was willing to make a solo project for him at one time.
Funny enough, Marko tangled with both Deadpool and X-Force in the comics.
The Juggernaut is usually just a run of the mill unstoppable comical brute robbing banks but might be better suited as hired muscle for a villain. Plus, with the return of Colossus having these two finally fight on screen could be worthwhile. In the comics, Colossus (confirmed by screenwriters as returning in Deadpool 2) ends up taking over the Juggernaut mantle.
Marko could be potentially combined with former Deadpool mercenary cohort Sluggo. We’ve seen Juggernaut paired with Irish criminal mutant villain Black Tom Cassidy (remember Brosnan is Irish) and that dynamic could be interesting as well.
There had been some hope on our part that Arkady Rossovich aka Omega Red would make his way into Hugh Jackman’s final outing as Wolverine in Logan but I guess the vampiric cyborg might have been a little too fanciful for director James Mangold, not unlike Sinister.
Depending on the incarnation of the failed Russian super-soldier, he’s been muscle/hitman for the Red Mafia (Russian mob), Yakuza (Japanese mob), and The Hand. Making him a great secondary villain for someone like Sinister.
The Wolverine seemingly teased the villain with the tentacle robots that suppressed Logan’s powers. A rude Russian military client seen at the beginning of Deadpool could lead into connections to Omega same with Colossus.
He’s tangled with Deadpool recently in the comics and worked alongside him the animated film Hulk vs. Wolverine.
The Omega Clan consisting of clones of the original Rossovich named Omega Red, Omega, Black, and Omega White have been recent foes of X-Force. An X-23 spinoff could absorb Wolverine’s former comic book villains, seeing Omega and Logan’s long-lost son Daken showing up in her potential solo film wouldn’t be hard to imagine.
There is a violent X-Men villain with time travel powers connected to X-Force members.
Trevor Fitzroy, the great grandson of X-Men: First Class villain Sebastian Shaw, is a mutant criminal from a dystopian future. He possesses the ability to absorb energy from human beings killing them in the process and uses that energy to open time portals.
He is considered one of the villains of Bishop and was once romantically involved with Bishop’s sister Shard. While a member of The Upstarts he killed Hellfire Club member Donald Pierce and his henchmen The Reavers, these characters were recently used in Logan. In the 90s cartoon series, he was sent to 1959 to assassinate Charles Xavier.
Chasing Fitzroy could explain why Cable has gone back in time.
With Deadpool 2’s production now expected to begin on June 19th as listed by the Directors Guild of Canada and director David Leitch alluding to Ryan Reynolds announcing cast/characters on his social media accounts, we’ll likely learn soon if Sinister is in the film or if we’re getting someone else.
What X-Men villains would you like to see in Deadpool 2 and X-Force?