I recently wrote about how the exit of Mystique from the film series wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. After touching that subject, I found myself reflecting on other core characters of this period piece trilogy. I stated that Mystique has fairly recycled sequences and now I’m finding that so does Charles Xavier. Let’s take a look.

1. X-Men- He is rendered unable to assist the team in locating Magneto and his brotherhood after he is poisoned by Mystique. He has to sit out the third act of the film due to the attack and his larger than life telepathic powers are taken out of the equation.

2. X2: X-Men United- Charles is captured by Stryker very early on in the film. His role transforms to one of being utilized to kill all of mutant kind with the aid of Cerebro. The mission of the X-Men aside from stopping Stryker is to rescue the professor… Though the context isn’t necessarily the same, the concept remains where the powers of the professor are distanced from the X-Men and their ability to rely on them. Though his victimization was different this time around, he still needed the help of his most faithful students to pull through once more.

3. X-Men the Last Stand-(Ugh). I don’t think we need to dive too deep into this one. Come on, before the show even really gets started Xavier is literally obliterated by the Phoenix. No rescue needed. He is dead as dead can be. No great telepathy on the side of the X-Men to help once more.

4. X-Men Days of Future Past- The dude wants to walk! Of course the price for that is having no telepathic powers! After all, allowing him to have them would make the conflict (and just about every other conflict in the films really) that much quicker to solve. Therefore this becomes a story of not saving Xavier from an enemy but really saving him from himself.

5. X-Men: Apocalypse- Looking at the clips presented to the audience at this year’s (awesome) San Diego Comic-Con it seems like we see Apocalypse and his Horsemen kidnapping the professor… Please don’t tell me we’re doing this again.

It feels that the main function of the character is to render his omega level powers useless so that a plot can exist. In doing this, we get his mutant in distress dilemma where Xavier lacks any real punch as a character and serves more as a device to get the team moving for a purpose.

So, for another trilogy, I see how he would have to be included-He’s professor X for crying out loud! But his use has become fairly predictable.