Fox's the fourteen movies in Fox's X-Men franchise. Magneto and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, Dark Phoenix, Sabretooth, Sebastian Shaw, Silver Samurai, Donald Pierce, and Apocalypse served as some of the franchise's biggest antagonists. After Disney acquired 20th Century Fox, Deadpool & Wolverine introduced Cassandra Nova — the twin sister of an unknown Charles Xavier variant.
Despite its impressive length and scope, Fox's X-Men movie franchise didn't get to adapt multiple famous Marvel villains. Mister Sinister was planned to debut in several Fox projects, but plans repeatedly fell through. Mojo, Omega Red, Mastermind, Stryfe, and Onslaught are a few of the X-Men enemies who haven't had the chance to appear in a live-action movie or show. Fortunately, Marvel Studios will likely focus on all the unexplored parts of X-Men lore that Fox's franchise didn't cover. However, one set of X-Men villains will inevitably appear in the MCU, and Marvel needs to get creative in order to do them justice.
Fox & X-Men ‘97’s Sentinels Left The Bar Too High For Marvel
The Sentinels Have Been Some Of The Scariest Marvel Villains Ever Put In Motion
X-Men: Days of Future Past delivered some of the most terrifying sequences in the superhero genre with the Sentinels' attack on mutants in the future. Able to adapt to any mutant ability, the dark, red-eyed future Sentinels eliminated the mutant resistance one by one, taking their time to come up with the most gruesome killing method available. In the end, the future Sentinels remained undefeated, as the remaining X-Men only survived thanks to Wolverine's trip to the past. Even back in the 1970s, Bolivar Trask's prototype Sentinels looked like giant cold-blooded, nightmare-inducing monsters ready to kill mutants on sight.
Eventually, MCU humans will launch their defense plan against mutants, and the MCU's Sentinels will have to match the threat of their Fox and animated series' counterparts
X-Men '97 took the already intimidating Sentinels introduced in X-Men: The Animated Series and upgraded them to a new level of violence. Implementing regular Sentinels and a state-of-the-art Master Mold, humans massacred most of Genosha's mutants in X-Men '97 episode 5, taking out heroes like Gambit, Dazzler, Madelyne Pryor, Banshee, and the Morlock Crew. Despite the X-Men's efforts, the Genosha massacre was a resounding success, which proved once again that Sentinels (and the humans who created them) are mutantkind's greatest enemies.

I Just Realized X-Men In Avengers: Doomsday Creates A Really Weird MCU Problem
While I'm excited to see some of my favorite classic X-Men actors return in Avengers: Doomsday, I think it could create a really weird MCU problem.
Few Marvel villains are as effective, scary, and powerful as the Sentinels featured in X-Men: Days of Future Past and X-Men '97. While Marvel Studios could focus on lesser-known villains in order to stand apart from previous X-Men adaptations, the Sentinels are too important to overlook. Eventually, MCU humans will launch their defense plan against mutants, and the MCU's Sentinels will have to match the threat of their Fox and animated series' counterparts.
Marvel Studios Needs To Do The Sentinels Justice From The Start
The MCU's Sentinels Could Sur Fox's If They're Set Up More Appropriately
Fox's X-Men movie franchise took too long to introduce Sentinels. The robots only made a cameo in X-Men: The Last Stand's opening action sequence, but they were holograms used in the Danger Room to help the X-Men practice their fight moves. X-Men: Days of Future Past then adapted the Sentinels properly, though their creation in the 1970s doesn't quite fit with what previous installments in the franchise had established. To sur Fox's version, the MCU could slowly build up to the Sentinels' first attack as humans' hatred for mutants grows.
The Scariest Sentinels Have Yet To Appear In Live-Action
The X-Men Movies Barely Tapped Into The Sentinels' Marvel Lore
The Sentinels were mutants' biggest threat in X-Men: Days of Future Past, but there's a lot about their comic book lore the X-Men movies didn't cover. In the comics, humans create a Master Mold that's able to create Sentinels, and a Mother Mold that creates Master Molds. Master Molds and Mother Molds are so powerful that the X-Men often find other ways to get rid of them than attacking them directly. The next step in the Sentinels' evolution is Nimrod — a self-aware, vicious AI villain driven by mutant hatred, as well as Prime Sentinels — human-Sentinel hybrids. All of these Sentinels could take center stage in the MCU.
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- Movie(s)
- X-Men (2000), X2, X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), X-Men: First Class (2011), The Wolverine (2013), X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), Deadpool (2016), X-Men: Apocalypse (2016), Logan (2017), Deadpool 2 (2018), Dark Phoenix (2019), The New Mutants, Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)
- First Film
- X-Men (2000)
- TV Show(s)
- X-Men: Pryde of the X-Men, X-Men (1992), X-Men: Evolution (2000), Wolverine and the X-Men (2008), Marvel Anime: Wolverine, Marvel Anime: X-Men, Legion (2017), The Gifted (2017), X-Men '97 (2024)
- Character(s)
- Professor X, Cyclops, Iceman, Beast, Angel, Phoenix, Wolverine, Gambit, Rogue, Storm, Jubilee, Morph, Nightcrawler, Havok, Banshee, Colossus, Magneto, Psylocke, Juggernaut, Cable, X-23
- Video Game(s)
- X-Men: Children of the Atom (1994), Marvel Super Heroes (1995), X-Men vs. Street Fighter (1996), Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter (1997), Marvel vs. Capcom (1998), X-Men: Mutant Academy (2000), Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes (2000), X-Men: Mutant Academy 2 (2001), X-Men: Next Dimension (2002), Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds (2011), Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (2011), X-Men Legends (2005), X-Men Legends 2: Rise of Apocalypse (2005), X2: Wolverine's Revenge (2003), X-Men (1993), X-Men 2: Clone Wars (1995), X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse (1994)
- Comic Release Date
- 213035,212968
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