Is Lucas Bishop the Next Big Villain in the MCU?
One of the best news Marvel fans received is the return of X-Men to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, specifically, new X-Men projects that will be part of the MCU continuity. We already saw Deadpool 3 having none other than Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine with Merc With a Mouth, which excited many fans; however, it also raised many questions regarding other X-Men characters who appeared in the previous movies. The character of Lucas Bishop is quite popular in Marvel Comics, and we saw him featured in the X-Men: Days of the Future Past; it was really a hype moment. However, Bishop was killed off quite fast during the fight against Sentinels, but since the X-Men returned fully to Marvel Studios, some started to speculate the possibility of Lucas Bishop becoming a big villain in the MCU.
Lucas Bishop probably won’t be the next big villain in the Marvel Cinematic Universe simply because he isn’t “a clear” villain in Marvel Comics. Still, there is a possibility we will see the character featured in some of the future X-Men projects like X-Men ’97’ in Disney+ production. Despite Lucas Bishop dying in the X-Men: Days of the Future Past, we can most definitely see another version of the character returning on the big screen, especially with Marvel fully going the Multiverse route. Also, the version of Bishop that died in the Days of the Future Past was much younger than his comic book counterpart. Knowing that Wolverine is separate from the future version of Wolverine in Logan, there is hope that if Lucas Bishop returns to the big screen, Marvel Studios will likely use a different version of the character – maybe even as a villain.
X-Men: Days of the Future Past truly showcased how the Multiverse should be handled in live-action, and despite some deficiencies, the movie handled the timelines and multiple timelines very well. One of the criticism was how the movie handled mutants of the future. However, Marvel Studios has a chance to fix the issue, which we will discuss further in the article.
Who is Lucas Bishop in Marvel Comics?
Adult fans of Marvel content will remember X-Men Animated Series from the 1990s. The show is still very memorable to the fans because of its opening song and the cool storylines we stumbled upon in the cartoon. Of course, X-Men: The Animated Series animation was much to be desired even at the beginning of the 1990s, but we could finally see our favorite mutants on our TV screens.
Besides the usual X-Men group with Wolverine, Jean Grey, Cyclops, and Storm, Bishop was heavily featured in this series, especially during the “Days of the Future Past” storyline.
Frankly, Bishop is most known to fans from that particular comic book story. Lucas Bishop is a mutant from the dystopian 21st century, where Sentinels took over North America and killed all notable mutants – in this case, all original legendary members of X-Men.
The remaining living mutants joined forces with humans to overthrow the Sentinels in the event called Summers Rebellion. This resistance didn’t work because humans were racist and discriminatory against mutants, so the superpowered group decided to follow Charles Xavier’s ideology and create Xavier Security Enforces to seek peace between mutants and humans.
Slowly but surely, Bishop climbs the ranks and becomes a Commander of X.S.E. However, when they imprison Trevor Fitzroy, a crazed and murderous ex-X.S.E. trainee, he couldn’t imagine that the villain would escape, use his mutant-life force to open a portal and lead them to the past when original X-Men members are alive.
Bishop and his allies from Omega Squad, Malcolm and Randall, chase Fitzroy and his “lifers” that cause chaos. They did manage to catch lifers, but Malcolm and Randall died in the process. Bishop is devastated but eventually joins X-Men to fight Trevor Fitzroy and gets an invitation from Charles Xavier to join the group under the tutelage of Storm.
As a member of the X-Men, Bishop gets through a lot, but when Legion, the insane son of Professor X, goes back in the past to kill Magneto, Bishop steps up as the mutant who will stop the crazed mutant. Of course, Legion makes things worse by accidentally killing young Xavier, which changes the original timeline massively. Apocalypse attacks Earth ten years before he originally did and alters everything on Earth, creating the Age of Apocalypse.
Bishop has a huge role in the event, convincing young Magneto to help him stop Apocalypse and undoing Legion’s mistake. He eventually uncovers that Professor X, in the form of Onslaught, is the true traitor of X-Men and helps the team to destroy the powerful villain.
Bishop is quite a powerful mutant whose powers include energy absorption, which gives him other powerful abilities. When Bishop absorbs vast energy, his powers increase massively, including superhuman physiology, accelerated healing, near-invulnerability, energy conversion, poison resistance, concussive blasts, and more.
Of course, Bishop is also famous for his X.S.E. plasma gun that recharges any time he absorbs energy. He is an extremely powerful and important character in X-Men comics, so why was he killed off so soon in the X-Men: Days of the Future Past movie, and is there any possibility of him returning to the big screen? Let’s find out.
Will Lucas Bishop appear in the future of MCU?
We established that Lucas Bishop is quite an important part of X-Men comics. So, when it was announced that Bishop would appear in the X-Men: Days of the Future Past movie, the fans were really excited.
This movie featured the “old guard” of X-Men movies, like Halle Berry’s Storm, Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, Patrick Stewart’s Professor X, and X-Men: First Class Generation of Mutants. They join forces to change the major historical event to save timelines, humans, and mutants of the future.
Bishop is one of the surviving members of mutants in the dystopian future, specifically the year 2023, who Sentinels viciously attacks. When they realize they must send one of their members to warn the X-Men, the surviving mutants realize they must do anything to stop the Sentinels.
Bishop and other group members die during the heist at the Chinese Temple, protecting Kitty Pryde to send Wolverine back in time. The fans didn’t receive Bishop’s death very well since he is an absolute monster in the comics, and ironically, the mutant died absorbing energy blasts from Sentinels, which is his main power.
This was a questionable choice, but the movie was quite good in the end, and Bishop, portrayed by Omar Sy, was forgotten. However, the news of X-Men being acquired by Marvel Studios sparked rumors about possible storylines, casting, and other characters being inducted into MCU.
We saw Charles Xavier having a cameo in Doctor Strange in Multiverse of Madness, and we will get Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine in the Deadpool 3 movie, which will be released in 2024. Moreover, the continuation of the original X-Men: The Animated Series from the 1990s will get its own sequel in the form of the X-Men ’97 series, which has to feature Bishop in some way – he was quite important in the original series.
Who knows? We might see Bishop feature in MCU in live-action and in the animated genre, which only strengthens the fact that this X-Man can still impact any story he is involved in.
