Another X-Men rumor is making the rounds, but this one may have more to do with Marvel’s multiverse send-off than the actual reboot.
According to scooper MyTimeToShineHello, Kevin Feige is reportedly interested in bringing Anya Taylor-Joy back as Magik.
Taylor-Joy played Illyana Rasputin in The New Mutants, the long-delayed Fox Marvel movie that finally limped into theaters in 2020. The movie itself was a mess, but Taylor-Joy was easily one of the parts fans actually liked.
Deadpool creator Rob Liefeld agrees. Responding to the rumor on X, Liefeld wrote, “She is 💯 perfectly cast. Bring her back!”
Anya Taylor-Joy Back As Magik?
The rumor comes as Marvel’s X-Men plans are starting to split into two different lanes.
On one side, Marvel is building a brand-new X-Men reboot with director Jake Schreier. As we recently covered in our running X-Men reboot casting rumor tracker, names have been flying all over the place, but Marvel has not officially announced a single actor for the new team.
On the other side, Marvel is already bringing back a wave of Fox Marvel X-Men actors for Avengers: Doomsday.
So while the knee-jerk reaction is to assume Taylor-Joy could be part of the reboot, her return does not necessarily mean she is joining the new X-Men movie.
In fact, the easier fit is probably Doomsday or Secret Wars.
Doomsday Is Already Bringing Back Fox’s X-Men
The confirmed Avengers: Doomsday cast already includes Patrick Stewart’s Professor X, Ian McKellen’s Magneto, James Marsden’s Cyclops, Rebecca Romijn’s Mystique, Alan Cumming’s Nightcrawler, Kelsey Grammer’s Beast, and Channing Tatum’s Gambit.
Marvel has even released an X-Men-focused teaser for the film, making it clear this is not just an Avengers movie with a few mutant cameos tossed in.
That makes Doomsday, and the Secret Wars follow-up, the natural home for a Magik return. Taylor-Joy is a New Mutants-era holdover, exactly the kind of Fox legacy face this multiverse crossover exists to resurrect.
A cameo or supporting turn alongside the other returning mutants is a far easier fit than a seat on the brand-new team Schreier is building from scratch.
Magik Makes More Sense As A Legacy Return
There is also the age and continuity problem.
If Marvel is starting fresh with Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast, Angel, Iceman, and the rest of the rebooted mutant roster, bringing back Taylor-Joy as the exact same Magik from Fox’s New Mutants would immediately blur the line between reboot and continuation.
Marvel can obviously do variants, recasts, and multiverse excuses. It has been doing that for years. But the cleanest play is still obvious: use Taylor-Joy as part of the Fox farewell, then move into the reboot after Secret Wars.
That would also let Marvel bring back one of the few performances from The New Mutants that fans still talk about without forcing that movie into the foundation of the next decade of X-Men films.
For now, file this one as a rumor, but it is an interesting one. Taylor-Joy was a good Magik. Liefeld is right about that. The bigger question is whether Marvel wants her for the future of the X-Men, or one last trip through the Fox Marvel multiverse before Secret Wars closes the door.
