Patrick Stewart has poured cold water on the idea that he will be returning as Charles “Professor X” Xavier in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
The actor played the character in numerous films across the X-Men franchise, making his final appearance in 2017’s Logan.
Now, with X-Men falling under the umbrella of Marvel Studios following the 2019 Disney-Fox merger, it is widely expected that the X-Men will feature within the main MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) canon.
In the most recent trailer for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, fans thought they were able to identify the voice of Stewart’s character.
It was assumed that Professor X would be introduced to the MCU by way of the Multiverse – which recently saw characters from the Amazing Spider-Man films and Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy crossover into the MCU in Spider-Man: No Way Home.
However, speaking to ComicBook.com, Stewart appeared to shut down speculation that he had featured in the trailer at all.
“You know, people have been imitating my voice ever since I came on the stage 60 years ago. So, I can’t be held responsible for that,” he said.
The actor had previously suggested that he would be unwilling to return to the role, with Logan serving as a conclusive end point for the character.
Patrick Stewart in the second X-Men film
(Fox)
However, it’s worth noting that Marvel has often gone to considerable lengths to keep forthcoming plot developments under wraps.
Before the release of No Way Home, Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire explicitly denied rumours that they would be reprising their Spider-Man roles in the new film – though their denials were later found to be false.
