Adaptations of Betsy Braddock in other media
The Marvel Comics character Betsy Braddock has made many appearances in media other than comic books, including television, films, and action, fighting and role-playing video games. Her usual power-set includes telekinesis as well as mastery of martial arts and swordplay. Psylocke has been voiced by Grey DeLisle, Heather Doerksen, and Tasha Simm in animations, and by Laura Bailey, Kimberly Brooks, Catherine Disher, Melissa Disney, Kim Mai Guest, Erica Lindbeck, Junk Luk, Masasa Moyo, and April Stewart in video games. In the film series, she was portrayed by Meiling Melançon and Olivia Munn.
Film
In the 2003 film X2: X-Men United, her name appears on a list of names Mystique scrolls through on Stryker's computer while looking for Magneto's file. In the film's novelization, Betsy Braddock makes a cameo as one of the mutants affected by Dark Cerebro during a fashion show and wakes up from her coma —induced by Dark Cerebro— when the machine begins affecting humans; she uses her telepathy to sense what is going on.
She also appeared as a minor villainess in the 2006 film X-Men: The Last Stand, portrayed by actress Meiling Melançon. In the film, she fights against the X-Men as a member of The Omegas; she does not demonstrate any psi-power, but uses her shadow teleportation (which can be confused for active camouflage) to appear out of nowhere. Psylocke is killed alongside Arclight and a character based on Quill (named "Kid Omega" in the credits) by Jean Grey's disintegration wave.
According to The Last Stand's scriptwriter Zak Penn, the character played by Melançon was not named as Psylocke in the original script. In a Q&A, he claimed, "There was some switching of character names later in production, and I'm not exactly sure how Psylocke got thrown into the mix."[1] Meiling Melançon said, "There was discussion that she was Kwannon or possibly other characters too, but I can't comment on the final choice made. There were certain aspects of her that were true to Psylocke: the red tattoo from Crimson Dawn, and the purple hair - though it was obviously shorter. Outfit-wise - and this is my personal opinion only - if she was standing there in her usual skintight outfit - which I do find sexy and would have been so stoked to wear - it might not have matched the tone or what the other characters were wearing."[citation needed] In the film's DVD audio commentary, the director Brett Ratner confirmed that the character was in fact Psylocke and not Revanche.
Betsy Braddock was included in early drafts of X-Men: Days of Future Past, but did not appear in the final film. Simon Kinberg said: "She’s a fan favourite, and also a favourite of mine. We have a small part that she plays in Last Stand, and we talked about including her in DOFP quite seriously actually. There was a version of the script she was in and we even auditioned some actors in Montreal. But we didn’t feel there was enough of a part she would play in a movie that was already full of many, many mutants."[2]
Olivia Munn portrays Betsy Braddock/ Psylocke in the 2016 film X-Men: Apocalypse, in which she serves as one of Apocalypse's Horsemen, Pestilence.[3] The film's Betsy Braddock has a few spoken lines and no genesis story but did show her notable abilities like projecting a purple psychic blade that she uses in combat.[4] Prior to her recruitment by Apocalypse, Psylocke is an American who works for Caliban in Berlin. She survives the film's final battle and goes off on her own, not joining the X-Men.
Psylocke was not present in the early drafts of Apocalypse, and was a late addition as the Fourth Horseman after writer-producer Simon Kinberg and director Bryan Singer decided she was the most intriguing character to add. They started to browse the Internet "and one of the first things that popped up was a piece of fan art of Olivia as Psylocke."[5] Munn, who impressed Singer with her knowledge of the character,[6] turned down the opportunity to portray Vanessa Carlysle in Deadpool to star as Psylocke,[7] but agreed only after making sure she would have a fight scene in the film.[citation needed] Preparing for the role, where she did most of her action stunts herself,[8] Munn has trained gymnastics, taekwondo (in addition to her own black belt), and sword-fighting six hours every day for three months, and also underwent a special diet to get in shape, losing 12 pounds in process.[9][10] Some stunts were performed by her double Julia Rekaikyna.[11] Psylocke's provocative latex costume was made by a sex shop in Los Angeles;[12] Munn changed its color from standard film X-Men black to purple[13] and experienced various problems with wearing it.[14][15][16][17] Olivia Munn said she has loved Psylocke since her childhood[18] as "she’s a really, really strong badass female character" and liked "that she was the bad guy that had no problem being the bad guy."[19] Munn said that she would like to do a spin-off about her character and would like to work behind the camera as a producer,[13] possibly alongside Deadpool in an X-Force movie.[20][21]
Television
Betsy Braddock appears in the fourth season of X-Men, voiced by Tasha Simms. This incarnation is able to use her psi-blades as projectiles, incapacitating opponents from a distance and destroying matter. In the episodes "Promise of Apocalypse" and "End and Beginning", she appears to be a lone warrior who practices theft with a cause. She comes into direct conflict with Archangel, and later Sabretooth and Mystique. She refers to her brother Captain Britain as fighting to help mutants. Psylocke also made two non-speaking cameos in the episodes "Repo Man" and "Mojovision".
Betsy Braddock appears in the Wolverine and the X-Men episode "Time Bomb", voiced by Grey DeLisle. This version is amalgamated with Kwannon and British Asian in appearance, though no explanation is given as to the circumstances of her race. She is a telepath, and displays a butterfly-shaped pink energy aura around her face when she uses her psionic abilities. It is hinted that Quicksilver had previously rescued Psylocke from an anti-mutant prison, assumingly for her use of her powers. This is evidenced when while spending time at a restaurant, she uses them to deal with a nearby disturbing ruckus caused by a mother with two complaining sons, being forced to ignore them, when she pleaded to futilely avoid being ticketed by a police officer. Thus, Psylocke makes the officer eat the ticket, and give the youngest son her ticket device and the eldest her hat to make them stop complaining. As such, Quicksilver now wants her to return the favor, and asks her to use her telepathy to suppress Nitro's abilities of self-detonation. The X-Men arrive to stop them and later Psylocke is defeated by Emma Frost.
Betsy Braddock appears in the Wolverine versus Sabretooth motion comics, voiced by Heather Doerksen.[22]
Literature
Betsy essentially serves as the main character in the Chaos Engine trilogy, where a trio of villains- Doctor Doom, Magneto and the Red Skull- acquire a flawed Cosmic Cube and attempt to use it to rewrite reality to fit their desires. Psylocke is part of the reality rewrite in the first book, initially just an aspiring singer dating Warren Worthington, but after she learns the truth and her original memories are partially restored at the end of the first book, she is transported out of reality to the Starlight Citadel in time to avoid being affected by the second reality rewrite. After exploring Magneto's new world for a time, although she fails to stop the Red Skull from acquiring the Cube, Betsy is able to escape the Skull's own reality rewrite with the "local" version of Warren and restore his own memories, allowing her to prevent Doctor Doom taking over the Citadel and then join the assembled X-Men in stopping the Skull's own schemes.[51]
