X-Men: All 6 Cyclops actors ranked from worst to best

2. James Marsden

Appeared in: X-Men, X2: X-Men United, X-Men: The Last Stand

If you tried to bring the Cyclops we met in the comics (or even X-Men: The Animated Series for that matter) into the live-action medium, there is a pretty good chance he would look like James Marsden. With his dashing good looks and assertive charm, Marsden was an inspired choice to play Scott Summers in Fox's X-Men movie franchise, and his journey with the character started pretty well.

Marsden did a great job in capturing the essence of Scott right out of the gate, highlighting his role as a respected leader among the X-Men and his passionate relationship with Jean. He truly felt like the personification of the character. The only issue with his time behind that visor was that the movies didn't give him an awful lot to work with.

For the most part, Scott was a supporting character in the films (even though he was supposed to be leading the X-Men) and he was very much in Wolverine's shadow. And I mean, I get it, Wolverine is great, but there was more than enough room for Scott to play more of a role. While his relationship with Jean was rather important to the story, he never felt like he was an important part of it; and that's because in these movies he wasn't. His dreadful treatment in the third movie was the most obvious example of that.

Marsden was great in the role and occasionally got the chance to shine, but the lack of material did his performance a major disservice.