How Sophie Thatcher Feels About Being Fancast As Rogue In Marvel’s X-Men

The world is Sophie Thatcher’s oyster. The actress is the lead of Nicolas Winding Refn’s new thriller, “Her Private Hell,” premiering worldwide this July, and later this year she’s returning for the final season of “Yellowjackets.” Thatcher made herself into the “Yellowjackets” MVP as the grunge-punk-turned-wilderness queen Natalie Scatorccio.

Thatcher discussed saying goodbye to her breakout role and the new freedom it will bring her on the latest episode of the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast, hosted by Josh Horowitz. “Instead of half a year, or a couple of months, I have a whole year to do weird projects, and take a lot of swings, and do that, and not just choose like, two movies a year and then ‘Yellowjackets,'” Thatcher said of her future plans. She’s been pigeonholed by some as a scream queen, not only for “Yellowjackets” but also for starring in the horror movies “The Boogeyman,” “Heretic,” and “Companion.” However, Thatcher has rejected this label (per Teen Vogue), and her upcoming projects show that.

She’s starring in the sugar-baby comedy “Peaches” and has booked a role in the witch-hunt historical thriller “Cavendish” and the sci-fi film “Plugged In” with director Jennifer Kent (“The Babadook”). Some of Thatcher’s fans are also pulling for her to enter the Marvel Cinematic Universe as the X-Men favorite, Rogue. It hasn’t been officially rumored that Marvel Studios is looking at Thatcher to play Rogue, as it has with some other actresses (Margaret Qualley and Odessa A’zion), but fans are trying to make it reality.

This fancast has prompted a lot of fan art (and, regrettably, AI slop) featuring Rogue with Thatcher’s face. On “Happy Sad Confused,” Thatcher revealed that she has seen some of this fan art and said she found it “interesting.” But what would it take to make Thatcher actually suit up for “X-Men”?

Sophie Thatcher has done franchise acting before; she appeared in the “Star Wars” TV series “Book of Boba Fett” as the cyborg punk Drash. But at the same time, it’s pretty clear playing a superhero like Rogue isn’t a bucket-list part for her. Read/watch Thatcher in interviews or on social media, and you can tell her personal tastes definitely skew artsy and alternative, not geeky.

On “Happy Sad Confused,” when Josh Horowitz asked her if she had any history with “X-Men” or watched the cartoons growing up, she answered that she only knew the X-Men as “the blue people.” (See: Beast, Nightcrawler, and Mystique.) “I’m going to get a lot of hate on that one,” Thatcher joked.

“I want to have a voice,” said Thatcher about joining a major franchise film. “And I know that’s absolutely possible, and people do that all the time, but I would just want to make sure it’s the right story being told, especially if it’s such a huge franchise. It’s like that itself has such an impact, and I want to make sure it’s the right story, and it’s, you know, not just spreading like violence and shock value, but something meaningful.”

Well, “X-Men” can certainly be “something meaningful.” At its best, “X-Men” isn’t just about superpowered action or soapy drama (though there’s plenty of both); it’s an allegory about human prejudice and how to overcome it. The makers of the animated “X-Men ’97” have said they considered the social conscience an essential part of their series, and it showed. Rogue, whose powers keep her from touching others lest she hurt them, is an optimal character to show the alienation and loneliness of life as a mutant.

I’m a lifelong “X-Men” fan, and Rogue is one of my favorite characters on the team. If you couldn’t tell, Sophie Thatcher is also one of my favorite working actresses; her involvement in a project instantly spikes my interest, and I can’t wait to see her young career blossom. So why do I feel cold about the idea of her playing Rogue?

Her screen persona and past performances as quietly haunted characters don’t strike me as an obvious fit for Rogue. I feel when “X-Men” fans pitch Thatcher as Rogue, they’re thinking of the withdrawn Rogue (Anna Paquin) from the movies, or the sullen goth Rogue from the cartoon “X-Men: Evolution.” Those aren’t invalid characterizations, but personally, I want to see the Southern Belle/bruiser Rogue, like the one we just got in “X-Men ’97,” but haven’t seen in any “X-Men” movie.

But then again, none of Thatcher’s performances have disappointed me yet. Maybe if given the chance, she can pull off Rogue’s Mississippi drawl, abrasive attitude, and sex bomb charm after all. (I’ve no doubt she could rock Rogue’s white-streaked mullet, too.)

The other side of my wariness is that this would tie Thatcher down. As she said on “Happy Sad Confused,” she just had her schedule open wide up thanks to “Yellowjackets” ending, and you can tell she wants to stretch herself as an actor. Joining “X-Men” would lock her down right again and potentially rob us of great, original Sophie Thatcher performances.

Not to mention, the superhero genre has fallen far from its Hollywood apex. It’s a safe presumption that Marvel Studios is betting on the rebooted X-Men to be a shot in the arm after “Avengers: Secret Wars.” For that task, Marvel probably needs Sophie Thatcher more than she needs Marvel.