Let’s dreamcast the X-Men before they appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe

BEVERLY HILLS, CA – FEBRUARY 24: Amy Adams attends the 2019 Vanity Fair Oscar Party hosted by Radhika Jones at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on February 24, 2019 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images)

2. Amy Adams as Jean Grey

One of the original five mutants Professor Xavier recruited to the X-Men, Jean Grey has been a central part of the group for as long as mutants have been around. Of all the professor’s students, she was closest to him on account of them both having the power of telepathy (although unlike Charles Xavier, Jean also had the power of telekinesis). That’s not to say that their relationship isn’t rocky, however. Xavier has a bad trend of keeping secrets from Jean, which rarely ends well.

There are lots of directions an X-Men adaptation can go with Jean Grey, but the movies have usually went with “tragic.” In one of the most famous X-Men arcs of all time, she comes into contact with the cosmic Phoenix Force and is transformed into the Dark Phoenix, a being of unimaginable power perfectly willing to fry anyone that gets in her way.

To say the movies have been hit-and-miss with Jean Grey feels like an understatement. Really, if you wanted to examine one character as a microcosm of what worked and didn’t about Fox’s movies, she would be it. She’s been played by stand-out actresses like Famke Janssen and Sophie Turner, both of whom stepped into the role as well as a fan could possibly hope for. But the complexity of Jean’s transformation into the Phoenix is something that has always eluded the films.

Whether Marvel Studios decides to revisit the Phoenix Force or not, Jean Grey should definitely be a part of the next leg of X-Men movies. And if the MCU is going to have a take on the character that can stands up to what’s come before, they’re going to need a really stellar actress.

Amy Adams has played every sort of role under the sun and can work in a ton of different tones, from darkly comedic in American Hustle to serious and curious in Arrival to superheroic in Man of Steel, where she plays Lois Lane. She has all the acting chops. And since she’s already played opposite Henry Cavill’s Superman, we know the two have great chemistry and would likely be able to play off one another as Cyclops and Jean.

All that is to say, if there’s anyone who can help bring justice to this oft-shorted character, it’s Adams.