A cure for being a mutant goes on sale, and everyone has to decide whether taking it would be a betrayal.
The premise is the best in the series and the film knows it for about forty minutes. A pharmaceutical company can make you normal. It is voluntary, it works, and it is instantly a political crisis, because the existence of a cure turns a fact about people into a choice they can be blamed for not making.
It also adapts The Dark Phoenix Saga at the same time, in the same film, and the two halves are at war for the running time. Bryan Singer left for Superman Returns and Brett Ratner took over, and the shift is visible.
Show detailsWhat it broke
This is the film later entries spend a decade working around. The Wolverine follows directly from its ending, Days of Future Past is built to undo large parts of it, and Dark Phoenix eventually re-adapts the same comics storyline from scratch with a different cast.
Who is in it
- Bobby Drake / IcemanIcemanShawn Ashmore
- Cain Marko / JuggernautDo you know who I amVinnie Jones, Ryan Reynolds, David Leitch, Aaron W. Reed
- Charles XavierProfessor XPatrick Stewart, James McAvoy, Laurence Belcher, Harry Lloyd
- Erik LehnsherrMagnetoIan McKellen
- Hank McCoy / BeastBeastSteve Bacic, Kelsey Grammer, Nicholas Hoult
- Jean GreyPhoenixFamke Janssen, Sophie Turner
- John Allerdyce / PyroThe ZippoAlexander Burton, Aaron Stanford
- Kitty Pryde / ShadowcatShadowcatSumela Kay, Katie Stuart, Elliot Page
- LoganWolverineHugh Jackman
- Moira MacTaggertXavier's human allyOlivia Williams, Rose Byrne
- Ororo Munroe / StormStormHalle Berry, Alexandra Shipp
- Piotr Rasputin / ColossusColossusDonald MacKinnon, Daniel Cudmore, Stefan Kapičić
- Raven Darkholme / MystiqueMystiqueRebecca Romijn, Jennifer Lawrence, Morgan Lily
- RogueMarieAnna Paquin
- Scott Summers / CyclopsCyclopsJames Marsden, Tim Pocock, Tye Sheridan
- Warren Worthington III / AngelAngel, then ArchangelBen Foster, Cayden Boyd, Ben Hardy
How it connects
Watching these first makes this one land.
This one sets these up.
Sources
Facts last checked on Sep 7, 2026
Released: May 26, 2006