Jennifer Lawrence Could Star as Mystique in Next X-Men Spinoff Film

With 20th Century Fox looking to make up ground in its burgeoning superhero arms race with Marvel, DC Comics and Sony, the producers of X-Men: Days of Future Past may be looking to Jennifer Lawrence as their superhero of the future. According to Entertainment Weekly, Lawrence’s Mystique could be the second character in the X-Men universe — after Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine — to receive her own spinoff franchise.

Lawrence apparently takes on an even larger role in Days of Future Past, one that would justify a standalone film for her blue-hued shape-shifting mutant. “There was a regime [at the studio] that didn’t see the worth in [spin-offs], and the current people who run Fox understand, embrace it, and we’re going to do right by it,” producer Lauren Shuler Donner told EW. “I’d like to do Gambit. I’d like to do Deadpool. We’ll see. There’s a lot of really great characters.”

Though Mystique has never had quite the cachet of Gambit or Deadpool in the comic book world, Lawrence’s star power makes a standalone film a no-brainer. The 23-year-old Oscar winner has already helmed one of the most successful heroine franchises of all-time, Hunger Games, and has proved herself to be a hit with both critics and audiences.

Whether Lawrence would be interested in expanding her role as Mystique is a different question. She has two more Hunger Games films scheduled to be released in the next 18 months, as well as another possible X-Men film in the spring of 2016 — and fatigue may already be an issue. Harvey Weinstein, producer of Silver Linings Playbook, said in February that Lawrence might take a year-long break after filming for Hunger Games wraps.

Lawrence has always seemed to make a concerted effort to balance her big-budget films with smaller ones, but perhaps a Mystique spinoff would provide her with her next Hunger Games-sized franchise — and it would certainly be a coup for Fox.

[EW]