Every Time Professor X Has Died in the X-Men Movies, Ranked By Shock Value

As one of the most prolific Marvel movie heroes, Professor X has been featured many times on the big screen. Having been played by both Patrick Stewart and James McAvoy throughout Fox’s franchise, with Stewart later reprising the role in the MCU, the leader of the mutant hero team, the X-Men, has been well-represented in the cinematic sphere. He’s one of the most powerful mutants in X-Men movies, with his telepathic abilities making him a hugely important figure within the wider Marvel universe. Even with his level of power, however, Professor X isn’t invincible. Over the years, he has been killed on-screen with surprising regularity, considering he’s such a high-profile Marvel character.

Professor X’s return as part of the cast of Avengers: Doomsday hints that he will once again face mortal danger in a Marvel movie, with many speculating that he will die in the upcoming MCU film. His previous appearances have seen the character killed on four separate occasions, with some of his deaths far more shocking than others. Here they are, ranked not by emotional impact or narrative importance, but rather by how abrupt and unexpected they were.

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4) X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)

2014’s X-Men: Days of Future Past is best known for its blending of the two different casts of Fox’s X-Men movie franchise, with timelines colliding in an adaptation of the iconic comic book series of the same name. While Wolverine worked to alter the past in the 1970s, the X-Men’s older selves fought to protect his body in a dystopian future. The movie’s climax saw Professor X killed by a Sentinel, but due to the nature of its narrative, it wasn’t a particularly impactful moment. In addition, it wasn’t at all shocking, considering the threat the Sentinels posed and the way in which the franchise had already established how it would continue the character’s story in its other timeline.

3) Logan (2017)

There are many who consider Logan the best comic book movie ever made, with its tragic adaptation of the comics’ Old Man Logan storyline proving an instant classic. It featured an elderly Professor X, whose declining health was a key plot point. To that end, his death in the movie was entirely unsurprising, but the manner of his passing earned it some additional shock value. Being abruptly skewered by X-24 was not the way many expected Logan‘s Professor X to die, but his death still wasn’t a major surprise to audiences.

2) Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)

Professor X’s introduction to the movies of the MCU came via a Multiverse cameo in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The return of Patrick Stewart to the role was a hugely anticipated part of the movie, even though he wasn’t the Professor X of the MCU’s main universe. His death in the movie came after a brief battle with the Scarlet Witch that saw the villain decimate the ranks of Earth-838’s Illuminati. The death itself was fairly shocking, but considering his fellow heroes had all been unceremoniously killed in the previous scene, it was robbed of some of its potential shock value.

1) X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)

Although there are many things that don’t make sense about X-Men: The Last Stand, the movie did deliver the most shocking Professor X death in Marvel movie history. After confronting the Phoenix in an attempt to appeal to Jean Grey, she begins using her powers to destroy her childhood home. In doing so, she disintegrates Professor X in a scene that shocked audiences. Considering the moment came approximately halfway through The Last Stand, it was a pretty surprising development, and while it could have been handled better, it remains the character’s most shocking on-screen death to date.

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