Xavier. The success of the Star Trek: The Next Generation TV and film franchises had typecast Stewart as his character, Jean-Luc Picard, and obtaining other roles became difficult. However, in the late 1990s, he accepted the role of Xavier, a role similar in many ways to Picard. He was initially reluctant to sign on to another major franchise, but his interest in working with director Bryan Singer persuaded him. While Singer worked to persuade Stewart to take the role, others who expressed interest in the part included actor Terence Stamp and singer Michael Jackson. Stewart announced that he was leaving the X-Men film franchise after Logan. After accepting an invitation to reprise his role as Xavier in the third season of Legion (a standalone television series set in the same continuity as the X-Men film series and following Xavier's long-lost schizophrenic son David Haller) by its star Dan Stevens, saying he was "Absolutely 100%" willing to reprise the role under such circumstances, it was ultimately announced that Harry Lloyd would portray a young Professor X in the third and final season; while having Stewart return as a present-day Xavier had been seriously considered by showrunner Noah Hawley, he elected the older character's presence to be unnecessary upon deciding to have the season revolve around time travel. Stewart reprises his role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) as an alternate version of Xavier who is a member of the Illuminati. Since then, Stewart revealed during an interview with ComicBook.com that he has been told by Marvel Studios to standby in case they need him to reprise the role again when asked if he would like to show up in Deadpool 3 (2024) due to his X-Men co-star Hugh Jackman returning as James Howlett / Logan / Wolverine in that film. Fictional character biography Original timeline X-Men Xavier is first introduced in X-Men, portrayed by Patrick Stewart, when he sends Storm (Halle Berry) and Cyclops (James Marsden) to rescue Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) and Rogue (Anna Paquin) from Sabretooth (Tyler Mane). Xavier believes that the attack was caused by Magneto (Ian McKellen) and that Wolverine was the intended target. He gives Wolverine and Rogue a home in the X-Mansion (Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters), and promises to help Wolverine remember his past as long as Xavier gets 48 hours to discover why Magneto wants