Taron Egerton is seemingly on the verge of joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe in some capacity, but he could have already appeared in a pre-MCU movie in a role he turned down. While it apparent that Egerton would love to now be a part of the Marvel franchise, when he had a “real conversation” with Fox about appearing as Cyclops in the X-Men prequels, the actor backed away from the part for a specific reason around the character’s choice of eye-wear.

In the X-Men movies, Cyclops, aka Scott Summers, is able to blast beams of energy from his eyes, which is quite handy when dispatching bad guys. However, most of the time, the character is forced to wear a pair of glasses with lenses made of Ruby-Quartz, a fictional material that can contain his power and prevent him destroying anything he looks at. With the role requiring any actor playing Cyclops to spend most of their screen time behind these cool shades, Egerton was not willing to have his eyes covered or his whole performance. He told SiriusXM’s Sway in the Morning:

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“I don’t mind saying it: That was a real thing, that was a real conversation. I’ve never said this, actually. To be honest, the reason that conversation never went anywhere further is because I didn’t want to play a character for a potential series of movies where you don’t see my eyes. For me, I felt, instinctively, creatively, that – like, the eyes are the windows to the soul. I would find that challenging, and I just didn’t find it an intriguing prospect. It’s not that they ever offered it to me, but there was a conversation – a real conversation – that never went any further."

The X-Men Are Coming To The MCU … But Not Yet.

     20th Century Fox

Marvel Studios have proven how they prefer to lay many subtle hints at what is coming to the MCU long before it actually happens. Having started hinting at the multiverse back in the end of the Infinity Saga, we are only now starting to see the threads come together and will continue to see the story of the multiverse and Kang the Conqueror play out over the next three years. While we know that the X-Men are coming to the MCU, it is likely that they will not be fully integrated into the franchise until Phase 7 or beyond.

With Phase 5 fully revealed, and Phase 6 clearly focussing on the end of the Multiverse Saga, there is probably no room for a full X-Men movie within that time. However, having already fleetingly introduced the character of Ursa Major in Black Widow, and commented on mutant DNA in Ms. Marvel, it is clear that Marvel have started the groundwork that will clearly lead what many believe will be a mutant based saga in the future. For now, there is plenty of time to theorize on all of this, including who Egerton will play in the MCU when his time to join to the franchise finally comes.