James McAvoy Has One Simple Piece Of Advice For The MCU’s New Professor X

As Marvel Studios prepares to bring the X-Men into the Marvel Cinematic Universe with its upcoming 2028 reboot, a new actor is getting ready to take on one of the franchise’s most iconic roles. Christopher Abbott is set to portray the next Charles Xavier, following in the footsteps of actors Patrick Stewart and James McAvoy. Now, McAvoy has some advice for the actor stepping into the legendary role.

In an interview with Collider, McAvoy was asked what advice he would give Abbott based on his own experience playing a younger version of Professor X. Rather than telling Abbott to worry about the expectations surrounding the character, McAvoy encouraged him to embrace the opportunity and make the role his own.

“Weirdly, did we feel the pressure when we did First Class? I don’t know,” the former Professor Xavier star said. “There was something really enjoyable about the nature of that reboot. It felt like a different kind of film, and it kind of liberated us, I think, from some of the pressure. And then we were marketing it and the pressure all hit.”

McAvoy’s experience with First Class is particularly relevant. The movie effectively relaunched the X-Men film series by taking audiences back to the early years of Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr, allowing McAvoy and Michael Fassbender to establish their own interpretations of characters previously portrayed by Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen.

For McAvoy, that fresh approach appears to have been part of what made taking on Professor X so exciting. Instead of simply trying to replicate Stewart’s performance, he was able to explore another side of Charles Xavier. Now, he hopes Abbott will receive that same freedom with Marvel Studios’ new interpretation of the X-Men.

“But just enjoy it. Enjoy it, and explore,” McAvoy continued. “Find something. Patrick explored what he explored, I explored what I explored, and I hope he gets to do something and bring himself and bring something new to it, as well, because we can’t just watch the same character the same way for 15 films, you know? So, I hope he gets the opportunity to bring himself to it.”

That may be the best advice Abbott could receive. Professor X has already been played in dramatically different ways, with Stewart portraying an older, more established Charles Xavier while McAvoy explored the character’s younger, more impulsive and complicated years. The MCU’s version now has the opportunity to take Charles in yet another direction.

With the MCU’s X-Men reboot scheduled for 2028, fans still have plenty of questions about how the new team will be introduced and how Charles Xavier will fit into the larger Marvel universe. But if McAvoy’s advice is any indication, Abbott’s best approach may simply be to enjoy the opportunity, explore the character and bring something new to Professor X.

Source: Collider