Mystique X-Men: Raven Darkholme and the Actresses Who Play Her

Mystique is the shapeshifting mutant Raven Darkholme, and she is one of the few characters in the Fox saga played by two different actresses. Rebecca Romijn plays her in x men 2000, x2 x men united and x men the last stand, while Jennifer Lawrence plays the younger Raven in x men first class, x men days of future past, x men apocalypse and dark phoenix.

Her power is shapeshifting, and the films use it for infiltration more than for brawling. In X-Men (2000), directed by Bryan Singer, she poses as Rogue's friend Bobby to lure the girl out of Xavier's school, and she later escapes by posing as Senator Kelly. In X2 (2003) she turns up as Wolverine himself.

The credits give her several names. X-Men (2000) lists her simply as Mystique. X2, The Last Stand and Dark Phoenix use Raven Darkholme / Mystique, and First Class, Days of Future Past and Apocalypse use Raven / Mystique. Raven is the name Charles Xavier knows her by when they meet in 1944 in First Class.

Mystique's closest ties are to Magneto and Charles Xavier, and the films show her choosing between them more than once. In First Class she is effectively Xavier's adopted sister, and the film ends with her leaving his house to follow Erik.

Magneto is her most consistent partner. In the original films she acts on his behalf, from the Cerebro sabotage in X-Men (2000) to the help that lets him escape and rescue the X-Men's team in X2. In Dark Phoenix, Hank McCoy joins Magneto after her death.

Professor X is the one who turns her back in Days of Future Past, when he persuades her not to kill Trask. The two also face the choice that splits the saga: Xavier wants mutants to live alongside humans, and Magneto does not.

Rogue is her target in X-Men (2000), when Mystique disguises herself as Bobby to trick the girl into leaving the school. Beast works beside her in Apocalypse, where Hank and Raven train the next team. Jean Grey accidentally kills her in Dark Phoenix. Wolverine connects to her through Days of Future Past, where his mind is sent back to 1973 on a mission built around stopping the killing of Trask.

Nightcrawler, the blue-skinned teleporter Kurt Wagner, shares screen time with her in two films. In X2 Alan Cumming plays him as the mutant who attacks the President and is manipulated by Stryker, and he joins the uneasy alliance that Mystique, disguised as Wolverine, helps into the dam at Alkali Lake. In Apocalypse Kodi Smit-McPhee plays the younger Kurt, one of the students Hank and Raven train at the end. Neither film's main storyline names his biological parents, so no on-screen link between Kurt and Raven is established.

In my opinion, Mystique's best scene is in Days of Future Past, where she goes to Paris to kill Trask, fails and is captured. It matters because the film is built on her choice: the failed attempt is what convinces Nixon to approve the Sentinels, and her later decision to spare Trask is what erases the bleak 2023. It could be argued that no other character in the saga carries a plot on a single decision quite this way.

My second pick is smaller. In X-Men (2000) she poses as Rogue's friend Bobby and talks the girl out of the school, a quiet use of her power that shows why the character works: she does not need a fight to wreck the X-Men's plans. The same idea returns in X2, where she walks the team into Stryker's dam as Wolverine, and I think that is the funniest use of the power in the Romijn films.

That being said, the ending of Apocalypse, where Raven and Hank train the new team, is the most hopeful note she gets. Perhaps that is why her death in Dark Phoenix lands as hard as it does.