The ScreenX trailer for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness subtly confirms Patrick Stewart's Professor X will have his iconic hoverchair from the comics. The multiverse offers remarkable storytelling possibilities for Marvel Studios, allowing their heroes to learn from other versions of themselves. It's also a useful plot device for tying all the various Marvel movies and TV shows together, simply by explaining non-MCU productions are simply part of the same multiverse.
Spider-Man: No Way Home saw Tom Holland's Peter Parker team up with Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire's. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness promises to take things one step further, however, possibly introducing a multiversal Illuminati, which includes Professor X, played by a returning Patrick Stewart. It's currently unclear whether he'll actually be playing a version of Professor X from the Fox films or a variant from another dimension who's very similar.
A new ScreenX version of the trailer (via CGV) for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness has just been released, and it confirms there will be one major difference between this Professor X and previous big-screen versions. He'll have a hoverchair, a device Charles Xavier used in the comics and the classic X-Men: The Animated Series. It's easy to miss, but at 00:12-00:13, the ScreenX shot shows a head-rest behind Professor X that's similar to some versions of the hover-chair, and both he and the head-rest are clearly moving smoothly towards Doctor Strange.
Click here to view the trailer on YouTube
It's interesting to note Marvel has commissioned a revival of the classic X-Men: The Animated Series. Little is known of this project, bar the fact that Professor X is apparently missing - with his voice actor Cedric Smith one of the few original cast members who's not returning. It had been assumed this meant the TV series would follow on from the final episode, "Graduation Day," in which Xavier left Earth with Lilandra, but it's entirely possible there's a time-jump, with its version of Professor X entering the multiverse. If that is indeed the case, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness will indeed serve to (re-)launch the X-Men, but not in the main MCU timeline.
In the comics, Professor X's hoverchair was actually based on alien Shi'ar technology. The X-Men helped overthrow a tyrannical Shi'ar emperor, and Professor X had a relationship with his successor, the Empress Lilandra; the current ruler of the Shi'ar Empire is actually their daughter, Xandra. Events played out rather differently in the X-Men: The Animated Series timeline, with the hoverchair created by advanced Terrestrial science. The X-Men only encountered the Shi'ar years after Xavier began to ride it. The iconic hoverchair never appeared in the Fox films, raising the possibility this variant of Professor X in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is one who's never been seen before, even if he is played by Patrick Stewart.
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