Multiple Media
X-Men has quite a few characters whose role is expanded in adaptations.
- Bolivar Trask, creator of the Sentinels. In the comicverse, he dies in the three-parter that introduces them, in a Heroic Sacrifice once they get out of control. His son and his nephew also tried their hand at it, but also didn't stick around. Despite X-Men's love of Back from the Dead, Bolivar stayed dead. No longer true, but it took forty-three years to get there! He finally came back from the dead in the main Marvel Universe in X-Force v3 #6. In the intervening years however? Well... In the 1990s animated series, he's a Recurrer you can expect to see in many a Sentinel story, on the run from his own creations. In X-Men: Evolution, he's arrested after the initial (unauthorized in this version) Sentinel incident, but kept around by SHIELD to design more once Apocalypse comes onto the scene. Had the series continued past the Apocalypse arc, we'd no doubt have seen a lot more of him and his wayward Humongous Mecha children. He's got an expanded, recurring role in Ultimate Marvel, as well as two movie appearances - one as the Big Bad!
- Berzerker of the Morlocks (yeah, with a Z). Comics: seen in one issue. A sympathetic but completely nutso Blood Knight, his friend Scaleface is killed by the cops because of Cyclops destroying their cover (he figured it'd make 'em stand down and hadn't counted on the cops shooting first and asking questions later) so he goes, well, berserk and dies when he's knocked into water during the ensuing battle (frying him with his own electrical powers). In X-Men: Evolution, though, he's an ex-Morlock and one of the newer students, with the show for three seasons. Temperamental but not Ax-Crazy.
- Scaleface herself. In the 1990s series and Evo, her power to turn into a big nasty lizard really gets to shine. Though she doesn't see an increase in screentime, her role goes from "dies so Berzerker can go even more nuts" to "Morlocks' resident bruiser." Berzerker wasn't even in the 1990s series.
- X-23 (Laura Kinney) began as a minor character in X-Men: Evolution to prevent Wolverine from taking over the rest of the show and to avoid having to introduce a large number of additional characters. After becoming a Canon Immigrant with NYX, Laura Kinney herself has gained a substantial amount of Wolverine Publicity, having appeared in multiple team books and her own solo run, and is one of the few teen heroes in the franchise that can arguably be considered an A-Lister, given how she would use the Wolverine name as well.
- The Spirit Drinker. In the comics, when D'Ken wanted to dispose of Lilandra, he summoned a soul-destroying critter, it targeted her, Kurt teleported her out of the way, its tongue nailed one of D'Ken's own Mooks who'd been standing in its path, and since it can only take one soul per summon, it vanished. Two panels, the scene notable only 'cause it was the first time Kurt had ever teleported with anyone else (at the time, it was pure agony for him and he passed out.) If someone with a gun had simply tried to shoot Lilandra, absolutely nothing would have changed, and the whole thing comes off as a Big-Lipped Alligator Moment. So, in X-Men: The Animated Series? Well, it was only in one episode, but we're talking one episode of sheer Nightmare Fuel as the Reavers, who'd kidnapped Wolverine to free an alien superweapon, figure out it's a containment unit for something very bad too late, and this only-partially-substantial soul-eating Eldritch Abomination is unleashed to stalk the heroes through the New York subway tunnels (and villains; we get an Enemy Mine out of it) as the faces of half-eaten souls continually form from its substance to cry out.
- Psylocke was originally supporting character in Captain Britain comics. A move to the US and the X-Men, and she's come to be far better known than him, and currently also known as Captain Britain!
- Kwannon, also known as Revanche, has historically been a minor character with less than 40 appearances across three decades, whose only claim to fame was being the one who Psylocke (seen above) had a "Freaky Friday" Flip with that turned her into an Asian ninja. She ended up getting killed off, ensuring Betsy would be Locked into Strangeness by being stuck in her body for decades, and actually came back several times... only to get killed again. Then, after coming back in 2017, she regained her old body just as Betsy regained hers. Betsy was briefly Psylocke after, but it didn't take for many. In 2019 Dawn of X, Betsy became the new Captain Britain while Kwannon would be promoted to Psylocke II, and become the lead of Fallen Angels - marking the first time she was ever a lead character in anything.
- And then there's Blink. Originally, the Earth-616 version was a minor character who was killed off during an alien invasion that leads the creation of Generation X. However, she struck a chord with fans in that time and was eventually brought back in the famous "Age Of Apocalypse" story. That alternate version of "Blink" was one of few spared when the AOA reality was turned back into the normal timeline, going on to become the leader of the dimension-hopping hero team "Exiles" and one of very few characters of that book who was there from start to finish and even through a Retool or two. And not long after Exiles ended, the main universe version was brought Back from the Dead: Turns out she was only in a pocket dimension, and was eventually yanked out by villainess Selene. Not only that, she popped up in the animated series Wolverine and the X-Men, the film version of Days of Future Past, and is set to be an important character in the television series The Gifted. Not bad for a Sacrificial Lamb, huh?
- As such, it's appropriate that the next-most prominent Exile is Morph. In the main timeline, a one-shot villain named Changeling turned out to have had a change of heart, worked for Professor X, and had been impersonating him while he needed to be away (this is how the Professor is revealed as alive after his first Comic Book Death. "I'm back! What, you saw me die? Well, remember that "Changeling" guy from way back when?") Purely because he's someone from the comics no one had any feelings about, he was used in the 90s X-Men cartoon under the name Morph as its Sacrificial Lamb in the first episode. ... And everyone loved him, and demanded he return. He made more appearances in the cartoon in the second season (albeit entering a Heel–Face Revolving Door due to the actions of Mister Sinister), and was also brought to life in the Exiles comic, if a bit exaggerated (Cartoon Morph is a Mystique-type shapeshifter and a Spider-Man type wisecracker with a(n in)famous cackle; Exiles Morph is a Rubber Man who does cartoonish sight gags. Still, when you've got a shapeshifter named Morph as the Plucky Comic Relief, there's no doubt as to who's being homaged!)
- Jumbo Carnation was a one-off mutant who appeared for a few panels in 2003, and existed mostly to be murdered and mourned by mutants. Following his revival on Krakoa seventeen years later, he's since become a major part of Emma Frost's inner circle. Not only has he been the one designing costumes and outfits for much of the cast, he was given an Implied Love Interest in a sea captain, been given his own declassified pages written by, or about him, and is responsible for designing all the costumes in the Hellfire Gala arc.
- Negasonic Teenage Warhead is a civilian mutant girl with precognitive powers who is introduced just in time to die in Cassandra Nova's mega-sentinel attack on Genosha. However, Joss Whedon would eventually write for the X-Men, and a Mysterious Waif like her is right up his alley! Cue a much bigger role as part of the new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants under his pen though the new Brotherhood is eventually revealed as illusions. After being prominently featured in the Deadpool movie, Marvel resurrected her in the comics and made her part of the Deadpool & the Mercs for Money series.
- Sage begins life as someone who takes Sebastian Shaw's coat in one panel during the original Phoenix arc. However, her one-panel appearance and much later return as a major character were both written by Chris Claremont, so it might have been planned from the start.
- The 2004 *New X-Men* series introduces the idea of the division of the students of the Xavier School into a number of smaller "squads", each overseen by a member of staff. At least 10 are stated to exist, but the series initially only really focuses on two - the New Mutants and the Hellions - with the others relegated to a few background appearances at best (and in some cases, not seen at all). After M-Day, several formerly background characters from the out-of-focus squads like Anole, Pixie and Gentle started to get more prominence.
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