Marvel Reveals Alternate Designs For Kelsey Grammer's Beast Cameo In The Marvels
In the mid-credits scene that caps off "The Marvels," Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) wakes up in a parallel universe and is greeted by a marquee member of the X-Men team, Beast, played by Kelsey Grammer, reprising the role from the Fox films "X-Men: The Last Stand" and "X-Men: Days of Future Past." Because his time onscreen is brief, his link or lack thereof to Fox's "X-Men" canon is unknown. What is apparent is that, despite sharing an actor, Beast's appearance in "The Marvels" differs somewhat from his "Last Stand" look.
A couple of weeks after "The Marvels" premiered and news of Beast's return became common knowledge, Marvel Studios' Director of Visual Development, Andy Park, shared some concept art that he mocked up of five designs for Beast's mid-credits appearance on his personal Instagram account. In the first of these, Beast looks relatively clean-shaven. Design #2 is similar but depicts him with a fuller face. In the third design, Beast appears a little older than in the prior two. Design #4 — which seems to be the closest to his movie look — gives him a goatee connecting his sideburns. Number five is perhaps the most drastic, in that it covers his upper lip entirely with a mustache.
If anything, the fact that none of these concepts resemble Beast in "The Last Stand" further suggests that the version of the character in "The Marvels" does, in fact, exist in a separate continuity.
Kelsey Grammer thinks that Beast will return in a subsequent Marvel movie
While significant in its own right, a cameo like that of Beast in the "Marvels" mid-credits scene is not quite a guarantee that a character will be back in a future Marvel Cinematic Universe project. For instance, John Krasinski's appearance as Mr. Fantastic in "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" is essentially confirmed to be a one-off.
About a year before "The Marvels" premiered, Kelsey Grammer shared that he wanted Beast in the MCU. After this wish became a reality, Grammer told The Wrap that he expects his Marvel character's subsequent return. "It is my hope that you will [see him again]," Grammer said. "I can say with a certain amount of confidence that you will. I would love to."
The fact that Andy Park came up with five different designs for Beast's cameo appearance could simply indicate that the producers of "The Marvels" wanted to make sure they landed on a look they were happy with, and has no bearing on his future. Or this may well suggest that plans for the character extend beyond this single scene just like Grammer expects, helping justify the hard work Park put into designing Beast's appearance in the MCU.