Marvel Shares First Look At New Beast Design For X-Men's Reboot

Published Oct 10, 2026, 1:30 PM EDT Nicolas Ayala is a Senior Writer for the Comics team at ScreenRant, with over five years of experience writing about Superhero media, action movies, and TV shows. Sign in to your ScreenRant account Marvel's new X-Men unveils its Beast, the most drastically redesigned mutant hero revealed so far. Of all the original X-Men, Beast is the hero who has changed the most since the team's 1963 comic debut. Originally introduced as a slightly oversized human-looking mutant with enlarged hands and feet, his body underwent a massive mutation in 1972 that sprouted blue fur and gave him a more ape-like appearance. Later on, a secondary mutation triggered by Sage altered Beast's genetic code into a feline creature with lion-like facial features. Some iterations accentuate Hank McCoy's sleek panther-like build, while other versions devolve him into a hulking beast with a heavily hunched posture. Fox's live-action X-Men movies reflected Beast's multi-stage evolution rather accurately. In X-Men: The Last Stand, Kelsey Grammer portrayed an older Hank McCoy whose sophisticated look mirrored the classic, mostly humanoid blue-furred design from the 1970s and 1980s. Then, the prequel tetralogy introduced Nicholas Hoult's younger version in X-Men: First Class as a truly feral mutant with a feline snout and a fully fur-covered face. This look gradually evolved in X-Men: Days of Future Past and X-Men: Apocalypse into a more balanced but vibrant Beast who successfully blended his brilliant scientific mind with his mutant strength and agility. That's not even counting alternate versions of Beast like the Chairman and Dark Beast, who modify Hank McCoy's classic blue palette to reflect their corrupted morality. Usually, when Beast turns evil, his physical features clearly reflect it. Midnight X-Men's Beast Is A Creepy Bat Creature Hank McCoy's Beast Transformation Is No Longer Feline In The Midnight Universe Unveiled at New York Comic-Con 2026's Midnight X-Men's Beast redesign features a massive divergence from Hank McCoy's traditional appearance. In the Midnight Universe, where a huge portion of the mutant population has turned into vampires, Beast is no longer an ape-like or lion-like mutant. Instead, the "empyre" Beast is a giant blue bat with huge ears and glowing red eyes, more akin to DC Comics' Man-Bat than any of his previous forms in Marvel Comics lore. The concept art shown at NYCC 2026 is designed by artist R.B. Silva, the lead concept designer behind Marvel's Midnight initiative. R.B. Silva's Midnight X-Men Beast concept art actually features three different versions of Hank McCoy's vampiric redesign. Design A showcases a tall and slender Beast with extremely long and thin arms above a shorter set of secondary arm-like limbs, plus chicken-like feet and ears larger than his whole head. Design C is similar, but with a much more wolf-like variation of his head. Design B goes the opposite way, with a very thick frame, massive forearms, and a lion-like head with tall ears sticking out of his mane. Three More Characters Are Making Their Midnight X-Men Debut Emma Frost, Bishop, And Shadow King's Midnight Redesigns Are Unveiled R.B. Silva's concept art for Midnight X-Men also includes the new designs for White Queen, Bishop, and Shadow King. Midnight X-Men's Emma Frost is the X-Men hero who looks the most like her regular self in the Midnight Universe, with several formal and casual variations of her classic all-white wardrobe. The biggest difference might be her diamond form, which looks less like a sparkling diamond and more like light-blue camouflage. Bishop's redesign is more drastic, with multiple different robes and a staff, plus white or red eyes and sharp fangs that out him as an empyre. Midnight X-Men's Shadow King is even harder to recognize, as the traditionally bald and overweight, white-clad Egyptian crimelord Amahl Farouk is replaced by a mysterious black-haired woman dressed in red, split into a regular human half and a shadow-covered half. Of course, Shadow King doesn't have a specific human body of his own, so this female human host might be one of many bodies he controls in the Midnight Universe. Still, the ink-like drops around this female character is a fresh way to depict Shadow King's powers. Which Midnight X-Men redesign is your favorite so far? Midnight X-Men #1 is now available from Marvel Comics Movie(s) X-Men (2000), X2, X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), X-Men: First Class (2011), The Wolverine (2013), X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), Deadpool (2016), X-Men: Apocalypse (2016), Logan (2017), Deadpool 2 (2018), Dark Phoenix (2019), The New Mutants, Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) TV Show(s) X-Men: Pryde of the X-Men, X-Men (1992), X-Men: Evolution (2000), Wolverine and the X-Men (2008), Marvel Anime: Wolverine, Marvel Anime: X-Men, Legion (2017), The Gifted (2017), X-Men '97 (2024) Video Game(s) X-Men: Children of the Atom (1994), Marvel Super Heroes (1995), X-Men vs. Street Fighter (1996), Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter (1997), Marvel vs. Capcom (1998), X-Men: Mutant Academy (2000), Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes (2000), X-Men: Mutant Academy 2 (2001), X-Men: Next Dimension (2002), Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds (2011), Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (2011), X-Men Legends (2005), X-Men Legends 2: Rise of Apocalypse (2005), X2: Wolverine's Revenge (2003), X-Men (1993), X-Men 2: Clone Wars (1995), X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse (1994) First Film X-Men (2000) Character(s) Professor X, Cyclops, Iceman, Beast, Angel, Phoenix, Wolverine, Gambit, Rogue, Storm, Jubilee, Morph, Nightcrawler, Havok, Banshee, Colossus, Magneto, Psylocke, Juggernaut, Cable, X-23 Comic Release Date 213035,212968