The X-Men film franchise just lost a major player- it's been revealed that Jennifer Lawrence will not be playing the shapeshifting mutant Mystique any longer, and that next year's X-Men: Apocalypse is her last film in the franchise. Technically, Lawrence didn't give any explicit reasons for leaving the role, but some can be assumed- that she'd rather spend her time on more prestigious projects than a supporting role in a superhero film, or that she's sick of spending all day in a makeup chair to have her body transformed into blue, scaly mutant skin.
But with the confirmation that she's leaving, it falls on X-Men fans everywhere to speculate on just what exactly the franchise is going to do with Mystique now that Lawrence is gone. Will they simply recast the character? Will the X-Men series try to go a few films without Mystique? Could Fox simply offer Lawrence a few more zeros on the end of her paycheck to keep her around?
It's not entirely clear- while Mystique has been crucial to every major X-Men film (not including the Wolverine-based spin-offs), there are plenty of other X-Men characters that could use a bump up to a major role. The X-Men series could always use a little more of characters like Psylocke or X-23- the former having appeared for a few minutes in X-Men: The Last Stand, and the latter never having appeared in an X-Men film at all.
There are a number of actors that could potentially take her place. If Fox follows the pattern they've been using for X-Men: Apocalypse, and casts younger actors to replace the older ones, they could find a young unknown for Mystique. Or perhaps Natalie Dormer, who's extremely popular right now and has yet to be snapped up into a superhero franchise. Or, it's possible the series could go for an older Mystique, like Julianne Moore (or even bringing back Rebecca Romijn from the first trilogy).
X-Men: Apocalypse will premiere on May 27, 2016.
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