Marvel: 6 actresses we want to see play Jean Grey in the MCU

Famke Janssen and Sophie Turner played Jean Grey for Fox, but the MCU will likely move in a different direction. Who are the best choices for the role?

Jean Grey is arguably the strongest psychic in the Marvel universe and an early member of the X-Men. Yet people didn’t always love her. For a while, fans only associated Jean as a strong damsel in distress. A lot of the blame goes to the early comics.

Too often, Jean would occasionally find herself in situations where she needed to be rescued by her male teammates, particularly Cyclops. In all fairness, a ton of comics did the same thing. However, in terms of visual media, most of the blame goes to Fox’s X-Men: The Animated Series. When it comes to seeing her on the big screen, fans can hope the Marvel Cinematic Universe does things a little differently than Fox’s X-Men movie franchise.

Speaking of, we do not want to see Jean in the Dark Phoenix Saga on-screen again. Sadly, Fox managed to mishandle an epic comic book story twice, tragic. What we need, however, is that version of Jean on the big screen but told in a different way. Post Phoenix Saga Jean evolved into a more experienced and self-assured character in the comics who eventually led her own team X-Men Red. The transformed Jean is a strategic thinker, a charismatic leader, and a strong advocate for equality and understanding between mutants and non-mutants. She’s more like Professor X than her husband.

Admittedly, Fox did a fantastic job getting away from the damsel in distress Jean. Sophie Turner was great as the younger version of Famke Janssen’s Jean. Janssen was fantastic, but the story didn’t work. Turner’s version of Jean suffered from the same lackluster character depth. Worse, neither of their Jeans were all that likable. The MCU needs to change that. With that said, how can they get it right?

Let’s start with who could play her.