The MCU Has The Perfect Excuse To Show The Forgotten Horror Of One X-Men Hero’s Powers

Published Aug 22, 2026, 8:30 AM EDT

Zoë Miskelly is an editor and second in command for Screen Rant's Movies team, having covered the entertainment industry for almost 10 years now. Zoë's love of superheroes and all things Marvel & DC started out in childhood, and has blossomed into a career getting to talk about some of the biggest and best movies and shows of all time, having previously focused on comics while working at WhatCulture.

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The MCU just got a perfect excuse to show the true and often forgotten horror behind a central X-Men character's powers as a result of the latest news about the upcoming X-Men movie. With the first X-Men solo movie in decades set to release in 2028, a new era for the beloved hero team is closer than ever, and primed for much potential in just about every story angle there is to conceive of.

Indeed, the MCU effectively has the entire collective comic history of the X-Men over the decades to choose from when it comes to handling these still relatively early days for the group and the characters within it. Given the X-Men have been approached in so many different ways over the years - having been given some of Marvel's most hopeful and cheerful storylines, and some of its most bleak and harrowing - it's exciting to be able to see the start of what the franchise will do with Marvel's mutant heroes, even if much is still yet to be revealed.

The recent MCU X-Men movie casting updates are some of the biggest reveals we've gotten about the film and its story thus far, and confirm that many of our favorite figures will be a part of this next upcoming chapters. One casting in particular bodes especially well for the MCU timeline and its potential when it comes to how it handles these heroes and shows the good and bad of their hero careers, since a figure with some oftentimes horror-esque abilities is being handled by a star who has shown particular talent in this kind of area.

Rogue's MCU Casting Is A Perfect Choice To Help Show The Horror Of Her Powers

Focus Features/Courtesy Everett Collection

The actors set to play all the new X-Men movie roles paint a promising picture of what's to come for the impending Marvel movie - but the casting for Rogue is perhaps most interesting. Following her standout role in the recent 2026 hit film Obsession, Inde Navarrette was confirmed to be playing the role of Rogue in the 2028 X-Men movie, taking on one of the most exciting roles in the team's roster.

Of course, one of the things that made Inde Navarrette's performance in Obsession - wherein she played the role of Nikki Freeman, who is effectively possessed by a wish lead character Bear makes hoping to make her in love with him - so special was that she was able to nail the uncanny aspect of the supernatural side of the story and its effect on Nikki, playing both the conventional character and the obsessive doppleganger she is forced into becoming.

This bares some striking parallels with Rogue and the horror of her own story, which is often largely ignored other than showing Anna Marie's emotions about being unable to touch others. This is both because Rogue's powers are similarly a force beyond her own control in many senses - and that she often fears using - and because Rogue is sometimes herself effectively semi-possessed by those whose powers she drains with her own abilities to utilize, all of which Navarrette is uniquely suited to be able to nail on-screen.

The MCU's Setup Means Rogue Will Be More Powerful Than Ever On-Screen

Unless Avengers: Secret Wars ends by getting rid of a wide assortment of heroes, the MCU has a smorgasbord of powerful Marvel heroes and villains active in its world, which means Rogue appearing soon is all the more pertinent, and is queued up to make her own abilities seem decidedly powerful.

With figures like Sentry and Franklin Richards now on the scene, Rogue is entirely capable of taking some serious metahuman firepower and making it her own. Similarly, figures like Wolverine and Deadpool give her access to plenty of healing abilities, too, opening things up for Rogue to be seriously capable in just about any situation - with her only limiting factor potentially being her own horror and refusal to drain the life force and abilities of those around her, and the complexities around her retaining aspects of those she does so to.

Indeed, given one of the most famous examples of Rogue's power use in the comics saw her retain aspects of Captain Marvel's mind and abilities for some time, it will be fascinating to see how the MCU explores the character and her unique skillset in the franchise - and, hopefully, the franchise will make full use of Inde Navarrette's casting in order to show the blessings and horrifying curses of said powers.

X-Men