Acquiring

Target 18 of 30 · X-Men

Beast

IdentityConfirmed

Real nameHenry McCoy

CodenameBeast

ContinentX-Men

In DoomsdayKelsey Grammer (on Marvel's cast list; role not yet named)¹

First seenX-Men #1, September 1963²

Created byStan Lee, Jack Kirby²

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Level 1 // The briefDecrypted · 30 seconds

WhoHank McCoy, a founding X-Man and gifted scientist whose mutation gives him great strength and agility and, in time, a body covered in fur.³

AbilitiesGreat strength, agility and reflexes, plus a genius-level scientific mind.³

In DoomsdayMarvel lists Kelsey Grammer in the cast but has not named his role; his most recent released role was Beast.¹

Last seenThe Marvels (2023), as Beast: In a parallel universe, he explains to a stranded Monica Rambeau how she arrived there.⁸

Sources

Level 2 // Surveillance recordOn screen · 8 sightings, 1 in the MCU

Every live-action sighting of Beast, and everything Marvel has confirmed.

2003
X2 FOXCameo
Steve Bacic Dr. Hank McCoy appears only on a television screen, in a news interview playing in the bar where Mystique picks up one of Magneto's guards. The broadcast shows him debating a Dr. Shaw. The Marvel Fandom wiki notes the filmmakers had wanted Beast since the first film but could not afford him.¹²³
2006
X-Men: The Last Stand FOX
Kelsey Grammer A former Xavier student now serving as the government's Secretary of Mutant Affairs, Hank warns the professor about a new mutant cure and admits he still sometimes longs to look normal. When the cure is turned into a weapon without his knowledge he resigns and rejoins the X-Men for the battle on Alcatraz, where he injects Magneto with the cure. He ends the film as the United States ambassador to the United Nations.³²
2011
X-Men: First Class FOX
Nicholas Hoult In 1962 young Hank is a CIA researcher who has built a prototype Cerebro and a supersonic jet while hiding his prehensile feet. He falls for Raven and works on a serum to suppress his physical mutation, but taking it backfires and turns him blue and furry, and Havok names him Beast. He flies the team to Cuba for the showdown with Sebastian Shaw and stays with Charles when Raven leaves.⁴⁵
2014
X-Men: Days of Future Past FOX
Nicholas Hoult (Kelsey Grammer as the older Hank) By 1973 Hank is alone with Charles at the closed school, using a refined serum that lets him switch between forms and lets Charles walk. He helps a time-travelling Logan break Erik out of the Pentagon and stop Raven in Paris and Washington, using the serum to hide from a Sentinel. In the restored 2023, Grammer's older Beast greets Logan in the school's halls.⁶⁵
2016
X-Men: Apocalypse FOX
Nicholas Hoult Teaching at Xavier's school in 1983, Hank has built Cyclops' ruby quartz glasses. He is captured by Stryker along with Raven, Peter Maximoff and Moira MacTaggert, then escapes and flies the X-Men to Cairo, where he fights Psylocke. Afterwards he and Raven train the new team.⁷⁵
2018
Deadpool 2 FOXCameo
Uncredited When Deadpool visits Xavier's school and wonders aloud where the other X-Men are, Beast is in a nearby room with several teammates and quietly shuts the door so he will not notice them. The wiki notes the scene was shot on the Dark Phoenix set and added by green screen.⁸⁹
2019
Dark Phoenix FOX
Nicholas Hoult In 1992, after Jean Grey absorbs a cosmic force and kills Raven, a heartbroken Hank leaves the X-Men and joins Magneto in trying to kill Jean. He later makes peace with Charles and is left running the school in his absence.¹⁰⁵
2023
The Marvels MCUCameo
Kelsey Grammer In the mid-credits scene, Monica Rambeau wakes up at the X-Mansion in a parallel universe after Binary, this world's version of her mother, finds her adrift in space. Beast, working as the X-Men's scientist, suggests she fell through a tear in space-time into a reality parallel to her own, then leaves to update Charles Xavier.¹¹¹²¹³

What Marvel confirmed

The film. Avengers: Doomsday opens 18 December 2026.¹⁴

Sources

Level 3 // Deep archiveThe comics · since September 1963

Origin, the comics by era, abilities and recorded feats.

Origin

Hank McCoy was born in Dunfee, Illinois, to Norton and Edna McCoy. His father had taken a huge dose of radiation while repairing a fault at the nuclear plant where he worked, and soon left the job to farm; when Hank arrived his mutation was obvious at once from his oversized hands and feet, and even as a baby he was unusually strong and agile. He grew into a fiercely curious, wordy boy who took apart any machine he could reach, to the despair of his school, and once crushed his uncle Bob's hand without knowing his own strength. Teased for his looks, he threw himself into his studies, building a range of interests across the sciences and the arts.

His size made him a target for bullies, and when a group of them pushed him into traffic only his reflexes saved him. The incident caught the eye of the football coach, and Hank became a star player, with his tutoring partner Jennifer Nyles becoming his girlfriend and his loudest defender. Newspaper stories about the gifted athlete reached both Professor Charles Xavier and a criminal called the Conquistador, who took Hank's parents hostage to force him to steal an experimental reactor. Xavier sent Cyclops, Iceman and the Angel to help, and after the fight Hank freed his parents and agreed to enrol at Xavier's school, while the professor erased the town's memories of him.

Taking the codename Beast, Hank was one of the founding X-Men, and with Jean Grey's arrival the team was complete in time for its first clash with Magneto at the Cape Citadel missile base. For all his brawn he spoke like a professor and lived with his nose in a book, and he made clear he disliked being called the Beast at all. He was also slow to forgive Xavier for wiping the memories of the people he grew up with, but the professor eventually persuaded him it had been done to protect them and him.¹²³⁴⁵⁶⁷

The record, by era

1963-1969
The original X-Men The Silver Age debut
Hank opens the very first X-Men story in Xavier's training machine, trading pranks with Iceman, before the team stops Magneto's takeover of Cape Citadel. Early missions pit him against the Blob, the Vanisher and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, and he confesses that he finds his codename hurtful. Later in the decade a run of issues fills in his origin, from the radiation that changed his father to the Conquistador's kidnapping of his parents.¹²³⁵⁷
Key issues: X-Men #1 (1963) · X-Men #3 (1964) · X-Men #53 (1969)
1972-1973
Becoming the furry Beast The Bronze Age makeover
Working as a researcher at the Brand Corporation, Hank isolates a chemical that triggers mutation and drinks it so he can stop a theft without being recognised. He misses the one-hour window for the antidote and is left permanently covered in grey fur, stronger, faster and quicker to anger. He hides behind a latex mask and a posture-correcting harness, and after an injury his fur turns blue-black while a recovering Hank accidentally reveals his secret to his neighbour Patsy Walker.¹⁸⁹
Key issues: Amazing Adventures #11 (1972) · Amazing Adventures #15 (1972)
1975-1981
An Avenger Earth's Mightiest Heroes
When the Avengers hold open auditions, Beast turns up having given up his civilian identity and is taken on as a probationary member, unmasking the Toad posing as the Stranger along the way. Made a full member, he becomes close friends with the revived Wonder Man and enjoys life as a celebrity hero, while also helping his old X-Men teammates against Magneto and Dark Phoenix. After choosing to destroy the Resurrection Stone rather than let it fall into the wrong hands, even though his poisoned girlfriend Vera Cantor stays in a coma, he takes leave from the team to focus on science.¹¹⁰¹¹¹²
Key issues: Avengers #137 (1975) · Avengers #151 (1976) · Avengers #211 (1981)
1982-1986
The New Defenders and X-Factor New teams
Looking for a way to save Vera, Beast teams up with Doctor Strange and joins the loose band of Defenders, later turning them into a formal team with Iceman, Angel, Valkyrie, Moondragon and Gargoyle. After that group falls apart in a final battle with a possessed Moondragon, he is turned away from university jobs by anti-mutant protests and joins the original X-Men in founding X-Factor. The scientist Carl Maddicks captures him to research a cure for his son, and the experiment leaves Hank looking human again.¹¹³¹⁴¹⁵¹⁶¹⁷
Key issues: Defenders #105 (1982) · Defenders #125 (1983) · New Defenders #152 (1986) · X-Factor #1 (1986) · X-Factor #3 (1986)
1993-2001
The Legacy Virus and the Dark Beast The 1990s X-Men
Back with the X-Men as their resident scientist, Hank spends years chasing a cure for the Legacy Virus. A cruel counterpart from the Age of Apocalypse reality, the Dark Beast, imprisons him in the ruins of the Brand Corporation and takes over his life until X-Factor rescues the real Hank. Building on Moira MacTaggert's final notes, he finally completes the cure, though it can only spread after a mutant releases it, and Colossus gives his life to do so.¹¹⁸¹⁹²⁰
Key issues: X-Men Unlimited #10 (1996) · X-Factor #126 (1996) · Uncanny X-Men #390 (2001)
2001-2002
New X-Men Secondary mutation
Hank's mutation pushes him into a heavier, cat-like form with sharper senses but clumsier hands. He helps Xavier build the Cerebra mutant tracker and teaches the flood of new students, but Cassandra Nova, hiding in Xavier's body, torments him about devolving and has a student beat him into a coma. He recovers, gives in to his fiercer instincts to confront Nova and uses his healing technology on Xavier's body instead, helping the X-Men take back the professor.¹²¹²²²³
Key issues: New X-Men #114 (2001) · New X-Men #117 (2001) · New X-Men #126 (2002)
2007-2010
Endangered Species and the X-Club After M-Day
With most of the world's mutants stripped of their powers, Hank searches for a way to reverse the decline, even working with the Dark Beast and seeking out the Scarlet Witch before admitting defeat. He then gathers a team of scientists, the X-Club, to study where modern mutation came from. Tortured in Norman Osborn's custody as part of Cyclops' wider plans, and uneasy with the X-Men's turn toward militancy, he walks out on the team and their island base, Utopia.¹²⁴²⁵²⁶
Key issues: X-Men: Endangered Species #1 (2007) · Uncanny X-Men #507 (2009) · Uncanny X-Men #519 (2010)
2013-2014
All-New X-Men and the Illuminati Time and the multiverse
Believing a new mutation will kill him, Hank uses a time platform to bring the teenage original X-Men to the present, hoping they can shame the adult Cyclops out of his revolution. He survives in a new, more ape-like form, but the young Jean Grey refuses to go back, leaving both generations stranded together. A message left in Xavier's will also pulls him into the secret Illuminati, where he helps destroy an entire alternate Earth to save his own, a choice his younger self condemns.¹²⁷²⁸²⁹³⁰
Key issues: All-New X-Men #1 (2013) · All-New X-Men #5 (2013) · New Avengers Vol 3 #3 (2013) · New Avengers Vol 3 #21 (2014)
2020-2024
X-Force and the fall The Krakoan age
On the mutant island of Krakoa, Hank runs the spy agency X-Force and grows steadily more ruthless, secretly lobotomising a foreign president's son in a botched operation that drives Jean Grey off the team. He eventually goes rogue, killing to protect his schemes, cloning himself and breeding Wolverine copies. In his final stand his Black Hole Gun fires with Wonder Man in its path, and Hank throws himself in front of his old friend and is destroyed; one of his clones, given an old backup of his mind, carries on as Beast.¹³¹³²³³³⁴³⁵
Key issues: X-Force Vol 6 #3 (2020) · X-Force Vol 6 #10 (2020) · Wolverine Vol 7 #31 (2023) · X-Force Vol 6 #50 (2024)
2024-2026
The Chairman From the Ashes
With Krakoa gone, the clone joins Cyclops' new X-Men in Alaska as the team's builder. The original Hank, meanwhile, survived by uploading his mind into a synthetic body and resurfaces as the Chairman of the gene-terrorist group 3K, working alongside Cassandra Nova. After an excursion into the Age of Revelation, he decides to embrace his emotions and grows himself a new organic body covered in white fur.¹³¹³⁶³⁷³⁸
Key issues: X-Men Vol 7 #1 (2024) · X-Men: Age of Revelation Finale #1 (2026) · X-Men Vol 7 #24 (2026)

Capabilities

Genius intellect

Holds six doctorates and is counted among the smartest people on Earth, expert in genetics, biochemistry and electronics.¹

Superhuman strength

Can lift about 10 tons in his blue form, enough to smash a brick wall with a punch or knot an iron barbell.¹

Superhuman agility

Combines the agility of a great ape with Olympic gymnastic skill, leaping 32 feet high and walking tightropes with ease.¹

Speed, stamina and durability

Runs up to about 40 mph on all fours, works at peak for hours, and shrugs off blows from Colossus or the Hulk.¹

Healing and resistances

Heals mild to moderate injuries within hours and resists cold, poisons, tranquilizers and some telepathic control.¹

Superhuman senses

Sees and hears beyond human range, tracks by scent, has cat-like night vision and can feel electronic signals through walls.¹

Claws, fangs and dexterity

Three-inch retractable claws and sharp fangs, and such dexterity he can write with both hands at once or tie knots with his toes.¹

Hand-to-hand combat

Trained by Xavier and Captain America, he fights in a bouncing freestyle that makes full use of his strength and agility.¹

Source of power

Born a mutant with an enhanced physique, outsized hands and feet, and great strength and agility.¹

At the Brand Corporation he took a hormonal extract he had isolated, which gave him a furry, bestial form that became permanent.¹⁸

Recorded feats

comics Drank his own mutation serum to stop a lab theft, gaining fur, strength, agility and healing; missing the antidote window made the change permanent. Amazing Adventures Vol 2 #11 (March 1972)⁸
comics Combined Moira MacTaggert's notes with his own research to finish a cure for the Legacy Virus, released when Colossus gave his life. Uncanny X-Men Vol 1 #390 (March 2001)²⁰
comics Used the Time Platform to bring the original five teenage X-Men from the past into the present, hoping they could change Cyclops' course. All-New X-Men Vol 1 #1 (January 2013)²⁷
screen Back in his old uniform, he fought Magneto's army on Alcatraz in a savage, roaring style and injected Magneto with the cure, stripping his powers. X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)³⁹⁴⁰
screen Examined Monica Rambeau after Binary found her adrift and worked out that she had fallen through a tear in space-time from a parallel reality. The Marvels (2023), mid-credits scene⁴¹⁴²

Notes from the archive

In Avengers #14 (March 1999), Beast and Wonder Man share what the wiki describes as the first on-panel kiss between two male superheroes in mainstream Marvel comics, a decade before Rictor and Shatterstar's in X-Factor.⁴³¹
Hank has a weakness for Twinkies: in X-Men #73 (1998) he pins up a communal New Year's resolutions sheet, and his own list includes eating fewer of them alongside curing the Legacy Virus.¹⁴⁴
The switch to a furry Beast was Roy Thomas's idea, with input from Stan Lee, to make the character more eye-catching and to cash in on the success of Werewolf by Night.¹
His trademark exclamation, "Oh, my stars and garters!", is the quote the wiki uses to headline his page, taken from Avengers #154 (1976).¹⁴⁵

Sources