Charles Xavier (X-Men Movies)

"We live in an age of darkness: a world full of fear, hate and intolerance. But in every age, there are those who fight against it. Charles Xavier was born into a world divided, a world he tried to heal... a mission he never saw accomplished. It seems it's the destiny of great men to see their goals unfulfilled. Charles was more than a leader, more than a teacher. He was a friend. When we were afraid, he gave us strength. When we were alone, he gave us a family. He may be gone, but his teachings live on through us, his students. Wherever we may go, we must carry on his vision. And that is a vision of a world united."

- Storm giving an affectionate eulogy at Xavier's funeral

"Just because someone stumbles and loses their way, it doesn't mean they're lost forever. Sometimes we all need a little help."

- Charles Xavier to his younger self

Charles Francis Xavier, alias Professor X, was the overall deuteragonist of the X-Men'' film series and the main protagonist of X Men: First Class and X Men: Apocalypse. He is also the tritagonist of the 2017 movie Logan.

He is the leader and creator of the X-Men and founder of the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters. His dream of a peaceful coexistence between mutants and humanity has long been the driving force for the X-Men. An immensely powerful telepath and scientific genius, Professor X has been known as the heart and soul of the X-Men, having first formed the team of mutants back in 1962.

He is portrayed by as an adult, by  as a kid and by  as a young adult.

X-Men: First Class
As a child at the age of 12 in 1944, Charles met a shape-shifting girl named Raven, who had broken into his family's mansion and was scrounging for food. Overjoyed to meet someone else "different" like him, he invited her to live with his family. Raven and Charles soon become best friends.

A natural genius, Charles attended Oxford University (accompanied by Raven, now his foster sister), earning a Ph.D in Genetics. After completing his thesis on genetic mutation at age 30, he is approached by Agent Moira MacTaggert of the CIA for his help to stop a mutant named Sebastian Shaw, who is working with the Soviet Union. MacTaggert introduces him and Raven to the CIA, where they prove to her chief, John McCone, that mutants exist and that Shaw is a threat. McCone refuses to employ them, but The Man in Black offers to be their sponsor.

Charles accompanies MacTaggert, MiB and a US Coast Guard assault team to arrest Shaw on his yacht. During the attack, his telepathy is blocked by Emma Frost. They also encounter Erik Lehnsherr, who was launching his own solo attack against Shaw at the time. When Shaw escapes in a submarine, Xavier prevents Lehnsherr from killing himself in an attempt to stop it and brings him to the CIA's secret Division X facility. There they meet a young scientist named Hank McCoy, a prehensile-footed mutant with enhanced intelligence, who Xavier identifies as a mutant. He then uses a mutant-locating device designed by Hank called Cerebro to find and recruit mutants to stop Shaw. Refusing CIA help, he and Lehnsherr travel the world, discovering and recruiting various mutants: exotic dancer Angel Salvadore (Tempest); taxi driver Armando Muñoz (Darwin); Army prisoner Alex Summers (Havok); and Sean Cassidy (Banshee). They also approach Canadian mercenary Wolverine (then known as James "Jimmy" Howlett), but he immediately rebuffs them.

Lehnsherr and Xavier collaborate with the CIA to find and capture Shaw, who was supposed to be meeting with a high-ranking Soviet general. Soon after their arrival, they discover that Frost has attended the meeting in his place, and capture her instead. Interrogating her leads to the revelation that Shaw intends to spark a third world war to wipe out humanity, leaving mutants as the dominant species. Meanwhile, the other Hellfire Club mutants attack Division X, converting Tempest to their cause and killing Darwin in the process.

With the facility destroyed, Xavier relocates the mutants to his family mansion. During their stay there, Xavier applies his telepathy to help Erik reach new heights of his magnetic ability. He also trains the other mutants to control their powers.

Xavier's new team is soon called into action when Shaw engineers a stand-off between amassed United States and Soviet naval forces. When a Soviet freighter is forcibly commandeered by the Hellfire Club and attempts to run the American blockade, Xavier telepathically searches the Soviet fleet in an attempt to locate Shaw, but finds himself unable to do so because of a helmet Shaw possess that blocks all telepathic contact. Xavier then took mental control of a Soviet officer and had the man destroy the freighter, thus averting a nuclear catastrophe.

When Banshee volunteers to employ his sound generation power as a sonar, Xavier telepathically monitors his progress and is able to then guide the Blackbird to Shaw's submarine, where Lehnsherr magnetically extracts it from the water. The submarine and the Blackbird both crash shortly after, bringing both teams into direct conflict. Xavier stays with the jet and continues his search for Shaw by linking with Lehnsherr, who ventures into the stricken submarine alone. While Lehnsherr finds and kills Shaw, Xavier's attention is now turned to the new threat of the two naval fleets with crews who are rapidly becoming fearful of the mutants. The ships launch a combined missile/artillery strike against the mutants, which Lehnsherr quickly turns back on them. Xavier fights with Lehnsherr to prevent him from destroying the ships, but when MacTaggert fires a gun at Lehnsherr, a deflected bullet hits Xavier in the spine, rendering him unable to stand. A remorseful Erik leaves with Raven, Angel, and Shaw's enforcers Riptide and Azazel.

Later, a wheelchair-bound Xavier returns to the mansion where MacTaggert promises never to reveal his location. They kiss, whereupon Xavier wipes her memory of the events. He soon intends to establish a school for mutants at his family's Westchester mansion, which will also serve as a base of operations where he trains mutants for his personal team:  the X-Men.

Between X-Men: First Class & X-Men: Days of Future Past
In 1965, Professor Xavier officially opened the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters. During that year, however, America assumed a direct military role in the Vietnam War. As the war escalated throughout the mid-late 1960s, many students and staff at the school were drafted into the military, and ultimately, the school was unable to function. By the early 1970s, Xavier's school was defunct, and he reverted his mansion to a private residence once again. His estate had also fallen into considerable neglect and disrepair.

By the late 1960s and early 1970s, Xavier himself had become somewhat of a recluse, living a mainly solitary life in his mansion - save for McCoy, who helped Xavier tend to the affairs of his estate. He had become embittered by both Erik Lehnsherr's alleged involvement in the Kennedy Assassination and by Raven's abandonment of him after years of being his foster-sister. Furthermore, during this time, McCoy developed a serum that not only regulated his own mutation, but enabled Xavier to walk again. However, it also weakened his telepathic abilities.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Xavier guides a group of young mutants, including a young Scott Summers and Emma from the Weapon X facility on Three Mile Island after being freed by Wolverine. Xavier gives Summers directions telepathically, which leads the mutants outside where Xavier waits. He then escorts them back to his school in a helicopter.

20 years before X-Men: The Last Stand
In 1986, Xavier and Magneto travel together to visit a young Jean Grey and invite her to join Xavier's school.

X-Men
Xavier sends Storm and Cyclops to rescue Wolverine and Rogue from Sabretooth. Xavier believes that the attack had been ordered by Magneto and that Wolverine had been the intended target. He gives Wolverine and Rogue rooms in the School and promises to help Wolverine remember his past if he is allowed 48 hours to discover why Magneto wants Wolverine.

Xavier uses Cerebro to locate Rogue after she runs away, but is poisoned when he used it later (after Mystique had tampered with it) putting Xavier into a coma. In the end, he recovers and advises Wolverine to search Alkali Lake for answers to his past.

X2: X-Men United
Upon learning that the mutant Nightcrawler attacked the President of the United States, Xavier sends Storm and Jean Grey to bring him in for questioning. He and Cyclops leave to visit Magneto (as he is suspected behind the attack), leaving Wolverine in charge of the school. Xavier learns that Magneto was brainwashed by William Stryker and was forced to tell him all about the School and Cerebro. Soon after, Xavier is sedated with poisoned gas.

He wakes up in Stryker's underground test facility, tied to a chair and fixed to a neural inhibitor that restricts his mental powers. He is left in the room with Mastermind - William's son Jason and a powerful illusionist who Xavier had previously taught. Now brainwashed by his father, Jason traps Xavier in various illusions, keeping him in one where Xavier is back in the School (which is empty) and Jason impersonates a scared little girl. To comfort the "girl" and find his students, Xavier goes to use Cerebro. It is discovered that Xavier was captured to power a makeshift Cerebro Stryker created. Under Jason's illusion, Xavier is tricked into concentrating on all of the world's mutants, nearly killing them. He then switches to attacking all of the world's humans after Magneto and Mystique interfere.

Nightcrawler and Storm rescue Xavier from the illusion and eventually board the X-Jet. Just before Jean sacrifices her life, she uses Xavier to telepathically communicate with the others regarding her intentions. Afterward, Xavier and the others fly to Washington, D.C. to warn the president against the possibility of a mutant/human war.

X-Men: The Last Stand
Xavier expresses concern regarding Scott's grief over Jean's death and tells Storm that should anything happen to him, she was to replace him as head of the school. When Jean is discovered alive, Xavier sedates her and informs Wolverine that he had kept her powers in check with psychic barriers since she was a child, resulting in her developing a second personality known as "The Phoenix". When Jean awakens as the Phoenix and escapes, Xavier tracks her down to her old family home and tries to convince her to return.

Infuriated by Xavier's meddling in her head and influenced by Magneto (who insinuates that Xavier wishes to restrain her and "give her the cure"), she uses her mind to levitate her house and then cause Xavier's body to completely disintegrate. His death has a profound impact on both the students and faculty of the School, and it is nearly closed until Storm decides to honor Xavier's wishes and act as its head.

In an after-credits scene, Xavier speaks to Moira MacTaggert through the body of a comatose man, implying that his consciousness survived.

The Wolverine
In a mid-credits scene - years after the events of X-Men: The Last Stand - Xavier returns in his twin brother's body, somehow still needing a wheelchair to move around. Along with Magneto, he solicits Logan's help against dark forces seeking to destroy mutant-kind. When Logan questions Xavier about how he's returned, Xavier reminds him "you're not the only one with gifts."

X-Men: Days of Future Past
Charles Xavier, Magneto, Wolverine, and Storm arrive to meet the mutants hiding in China, where they plan to send Professor X back to 1973 to stop Mystique from killing Bolivar Trask, which triggered the Sentinel Program. However, they learn that while Shadowcat has the power to project someone's mind that far, the process is too damaging to be used sending someone more than a month into the past and not even Professor X could survive the trip. Realizing that with his healing powers he could make the trip, Wolverine volunteers in Professor X's place. As the X-Men hide themselves in a monastery, Wolverine is sent back to the past by Shadowcat but not before being asked by Professor X and Magneto to unite them together in 1973 to stop Mystique. Professor X warns Wolverine that he will be going back to a time where the Professor is unsure of himself and Wolverine must be the mentor to him that he was to Wolverine. After his past self tells Wolverine that he is the wrong man for the job, Wolverine explains how he was the only one who could do it and has Past Professor X enter his mind to communicate with Future Professor X. Future Professor X is able to convince his past self not to give up hope on peace between mutants and humans and inspires his past self to reembrace his powers and use Cerebro to locate Mystique.

Storm, Bishop, Colossus, Warpath, Sunspot, Iceman and Blink are killed protecting the monastery. As the Sentinels enter, they fire at Shadowcat, Wolverine, Magneto and Professor X. Shadowcat lets go and the future is changed.

X-Men: Days of Future Past
As Wolverine wakes up in 1973, he encounters a young McCoy and Xavier and tells them that he was sent from the future; asking for his help to stop the war in the future. Professor X initially refuses to help, but then agrees, only for Raven. The three go to Peter Maximoff's house where they ask for his help to free Magneto.

Onboard a plane, Professor X and Magneto argue on how they abandoned each other and their kind. Wolverine, Charles, Erik and Hank arrive, where Erik plans to kill Mystique to prevent the program. She is shot in the leg before escaping through the window. Erik chases after her and pulls the bullet out of her leg and plans to kill her with that bullet, but Beast attacks Erik while Mystique escapes. After seeing Stryker, Wolverine briefly does not know why he’s there and who young Charles is.

Back at the mansion, Charles eventually refuses to take a serum, which allows him to walk again but lose his powers, and uses Cerebro to find Mystique. His mind is not focused and telepathically talks to the older Professor X where he is asked to hope again. As Wolverine, Professor X and Hank go to the unveiling of the Sentinels to find Mystique, the Sentinels begin attacking the public, where President Nixon and Bolivar Traskare taken to a safe room, followed by Mystique in disguise. Mystique slightly grazes Magneto's neck with a plastic gun before being convinced by Professor X via telepathy to not kill Trask. Mystique agrees and as Magneto would be executed for his actions, Charles lets both go. At the same time, as a mutant was seen to save the President, the Sentinel program is decommissioned and Bolivar Trask arrested for trying to sell American military secrets, meaning Charles effectively finished what Wolverine started and changed the future.

X-Men: Apocalypse
In 1983, Professor Xavier is teaching his students at his fully working School for Gifted Youngsters. He welcomes back Alex Summers and his brother Scott whom he accepts into his school.

At night, during an earthquake, Charles walks in to check on Jean Grey who has a nightmare about the end of the world, but assures her that is was only a bad dream.

After learning from Hank that Moira MacTaggert was in Egypt when the earthquake began, he and Alex visit her at the CIA. From Moira, they learn that a group of fanatics had been worshiping an ancient being known as Apocalypse who is believed to have been the first mutant in existence. Returning to the X-Mansion with Moira  Charles finds that Raven has returned alongside a young mutant she rescued named Kurt Wagner. Raven proceeds to ask for Charles help in locating Erik Lehnsherr who has resurfaced after his family had been killed. Using Cerebro Xavier manages to locate Magneto and begs him to come back to the X-Mansion. Apocalypse catches wind of this and  takes control of Xavier through Cerebro.

Before getting controlled, Xavier is horrified and awestruck by Apocalypse's power. After Apocalypse uses Cerebro to convince the world's government to send their nuclear missiles into space, Xavier tells Alex to destroy Cerebro to keep Apocalypse from doing any further damage and knocking him unconscious in the process. Xavier is then kidnapped by Apocalypse and his Horsemen and taken to Cairo, Egypt where Apocalypse has Xavier use his powers to deliver a message to the whole world. While doing this, however, he manages to send a secret message to Jean telling her of their location. Apocalypse then proceeds to try and transfer his consciousness into Xavier's body so he can gain his powers of telepathy. The transfer begins and Xavier loses his hair in the process before he is saved by Nightcrawler. Following a failed escape attempt, Apocalypse proceeds to call out Xavier and reminds him they are still connected mentally. Xavier can do nothing but feel and listen as Mystique and Quicksilver are tortured.

Xavier, fortunately, remembers that he and Apocalypse do share a psychic connection that allows him to get inside Apocalypse head and overpower him. Apocalypse, however, eventually overcomes Xavier and proceeds to brutally beat him in the astral plane while Scott, Hank, and a reformed Magneto combat his physical body. All seems hopeless until Jean having unlocked the power of the Phoenix  alongside a reformed Storm together vaporize Apocalypse on the astral plane and his physical body. The effort apparently kills Charles, but Jean detects that he is still alive and is able to heal him. Charles wakes up and gives Moira the memories from cuba and asks for her forgiveness. The next day Xavier and Lehnsherr talk about humanity still not accepting mutants and ask him if he is ever fearful that one day humans will come for the students Xavier responds that while it does bother him he feels confident he can protect them all and Erik parts on friendly terms with Charles. Charles proceeds to watch Raven train the new X-Men consisting of Cyclops, Jean Grey, Nightcrawler, Storm, and Quicksilver in the Danger Room.

X-Men: Days of Future Past
At the changed future, Logan wakes back up and sees that Storm, Kitty, Peter, Bobby, Hank, Rogue, Jean Grey and Cyclops all have survived. Logan then finds Charles, who told him he has a history class to teach. Upon telling Charles he needs to brush up on everything that happens after 1973, Charles realized this was the moment in the apocalyptic future Wolverine went back in time and the Wolverine he met in 1973 was finally back. Charles then tells Logan they have a lot of catching up to do and helps him brush up on everything that happened following his drowning by Magneto.

Logan
By 2029, Xavier is one of the last mutants left on the planet. In his old age he has developed a form of dementia not unlike Alzheimer's. It was particularly dangerous for Charles as he could no longer control his immense psychic powers. He began to have massive uncontrollable psychic seizures, one of these seizures took place while he was in the X-Mansion. It effected over 400 people in Westchester and resulted in countless injuries and the death of several members of the X-Men.

Soon after Wolverine removed him from society, arranging for him to be cared for in an abandoned smelting factory so that his psychic episodes could not hurt anyone else. While there, Xavier began to sense a foreign mutant, who was later discovered to be Laura Kinney, Wolverine's daughter.

After Transigen came after them, Wolverine, Xavier, and Laura went on the run, heading towards a supposed mutant paradise called Eden. While on the way Xavier endured another psychic seizure in a casino, nearly killing hundreds of people in the hotel and buildings around because he was sedated by Wolverine.

While resting at the home of a family they had assisted, Xavier began to remember the circumstances of his isolation, and how he had been the reason many of his students were paralyzed or dead. He believed himself unworthy of Wolverine's help, declaring this to X-24, whom he believed to be Wolverine. X-24 stabbed him through the chest, a wound which would prove fatal.

Wolverine buried him in an unmarked grave in a forest beside a lake.

Trivia

 * In X-Men: First Class, Beast asks Xavier if he can shave him, in order to better use the Cerebro, but Xavier replies "Don't touch my hair.", thus making a joke about his elder appearance. He does it again at the end of the movie, complaining about getting old and saying to Moira MacTaggert that he'll soon become bald.
 * In X-Men, Professor X told Wolverine that he met Magneto when he was 17. However, in X-Men: First Class, he meets him at the age of 30.
 * Professor X is referenced to in Deadpool when Colossus attempts to bring Wade Wilson to see him in order to join the X-Men. Wade asks whether it is Patrick Stewart or James McAvoy playing him.