William Stryker, Jr.

"If you knew the kind of person you used to be, the work we did together... People don't change, Wolverine. You were an animal then and you're an animal now. I just gave you claws."

- William Stryker

William Stryker Jr. is an army colonel set on destroying mutants.

X-Men: First Class
William is mentioned by Charles Xavier after reading his father's mind. William Sr., a CIA agent, is shown to be very much like his son, intolerant towards mutants. During the Bay of Pigs Invasion, he convinces the CIA to join forces with the Soviets to take out the mutants, but the attack is unsuccessful.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine
William Stryker is an army colonel chosen to be the head of a secret Government project, Weapon X, a program that employes mutants as super soldiers. He recruits James Howlett and his halfbrother Victor Creed in his first team, along with Wade Wilson, John Wraith, David North, Fred Dukes and Chris Bradley. During a mission, the team assaults a village in Africa, with Stryker searching for a unique meteorite fallen nearby. When the villagers refuse to tell Stryker where the metal is, he orders his men to kill them all. Logan refuses and stops Creed from doing the same, leaving the team and starting a new life in the Canadian mountain.

Stryker kidnaps Emma Frost for his experiments, and blackmails her sister, Kayla Silver Fox. She receives, as assignment, to stay with Logan as his lover and reports to Stryker whatever he does. Meanwhile, he orders Victor to hunts and kills his former teammates. Along with Zero, Stryker goes to Logan's workplace and tells him that Creed someone is killing the Weapon X agents and warning him, then asking him if he wants to join the team again. Logan refuses, and Kayla fakes her death by the hands of Victor. After loosing a battle with his brother, Logan comes back to Stryker asking him for more power. Stryker obtains what he wants and implants an Adamantium skeleton into Logan, but when he orders to erase his memory the mutant escapes and Stryker is forced to send his agents to capture him, but they all fail.

When Logan discovers that Victor is actually working with Stryker he tracks him down seeking for revenge. Stryker, meanwhile, has killed his superior, who had discovered his past: his son, a mutant, now frozen in ice in the very base of Weapon X, forced his wife to commit suicide, and so the colonel is considered too much personally involved in the situation for allowing the Weapon X program to continue. After disposing of the general's body, Stryker assures that his ultimate project, Weapon XI, will work as programmed.

Wolverine arrives at the base and confronts Stryker, who reveals that Silver Fox was an agent of him and that their love was false, which isn't actually true since the girl grew an affection to Logan during the time passed together. Logan is deceived and leave, just when Sabretooth appears and asks Stryker about the Adamantium skeleton he promised him. Stryker informs him that his healing factor is not as powerful as Logan's and that he's not able to survive the operation, but Creed enrages and attacks him and Kayla. Logan, hearing Kayla's scream, comes back to the base and frees his beloved one and the other mutants held prisoners. Stryker activates Weapon XI, who fights both Wolverine and Sabretooth. During the fight, the base is destroyed, but Stryker survives. He attacks Wolverine with a gun charged with Adamantium bullets and manages to hit his head, so erasing his memory. He comes near a wounded Silver Fox to finish her, but she touches his ankle and, with her powers, she orders him to walk and never stop till his feet bleed. So he does, and he's found by the army still walking. The soldiers arrest him for the murder of the general.

X2: X-Men United
William Stryker has come back to his operation on the Weapon X program, this time in secret from the Government. Using his son's spinal fluid, Stryker forces Nightcrawler to attack the President, so having a pretest to propose his Registration Act. Senator Kelly, actually a disguised Mystique, opposes him, but Nightcrawler's attacks proves to be more than an incentive for his proposal to be accepted.

Stryker manages to capture Professor Xavier and Cyclops while they're visiting an imprisoned Magneto and, with the informations gained by brainwashing the Master of Magnetism, he obtains an authorization to attack the X-Mansion. In the school, Stryker confronts Wolverine, who recognizes him, but can't remember who he is. Just when he's about to convince Logan to follow him, Iceman intervenes and the mutants are able to escape, leaving Stryker and his men at the mansion.

Back at the Weapon X base under Alkali Lake, Stryker confronts Xavier. He blames him for refusing, years before, to "cure" his son, Jason, from his mutation, and he later killed Stryker's wife. Stryker makes Jason, lobotomized for being more docile, brainwash Xavier and orders him to activate Dark Cerebro and to kill all mutants with a psychic attack. Meanwhile, the X-Men joined forces with Magneto and start an attack to Weapon X base. Stryker unleashes his brainwashed mutants against the intruders: Cyclops, who attacks Magneto, Mystique and Jean Grey, and Lady Deathstrike, who fights with Wolverine.

While trying to escape from Alkali Lake, Stryker is then attacked by Logan, who mortally stabs him and then chains him up to the helicopter. While trying to break himself free, Stryker is hit by Xavier's psychic attack, since Magneto modified Dark Cerebro to hit humans instead of mutants. Magneto's plan is ruined by Nightcrawler and Storm, but Stryker suffers for the attack and is found by Magneto laying on a landing pad. The mutant binds him with chains to a stone pillar and leaves him to die, since the dam is collapsing. Moments later, Wolverine finds him, and Stryker tries to have his life saved in exchange on informations about his past. The mutant refuses, and leaves Stryker to drown.

Character traits
William Stryker is a fundamentalist, obsessed by the threat represented by mutants to the human kind. His hatred towards mutants has grown since the day his wife killed herself because of the psychic torture suffered from their son. He's disposed to act in extreme ways to protect mankind from mutants.

Stryker is a skilled scientist, the only man on Earth, beside Magneto, who can manipulate Adamantium. He uses mutants for his experiments, and managed to create a serum from his son's spinal fluid through which he can control other people's will.

Relationships

 * William Stryker, Sr. - Father
 * Mastermind - Son.
 * Professor X - Former friend, enemy.
 * Wolverine - Former subordinate, enemy.
 * Sabretooth - Former subordinate.
 * Silver Fox - Former subordinate, enemy.
 * Deadpool - Former subordinate.
 * Kestrel - Former subordinate.
 * The Blob - Former subordinate.
 * Bolt - Former subordinate.
 * Agent Zero - Former subordinate.
 * Lady Deathstrike - Bodyguard.
 * Magneto - Enemy.
 * Cyclops, Quicksilver, Banshee, Emma Frost, Gambit - Prisoners.

Appearances/Actors

 * Canon (3 films)


 * X-Men: First Class - (mentioned only)
 * X-Men Origins: Wolverine - Danny Huston
 * X2: X-Men United (First appearance) - Brian Cox and Brad Loree

Behind the scenes

 * Brian Cox was cast because Bryan Singer was a fan of his interpretation as Hannibal Lecter in Manhunter by Michael Mann.
 * Cox wanted to reprise his role as Stryker in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, thinking that he could portay a younger Stryker with the same digital technique used for Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen in X-Men: The Last Stand.

Trivia

 * In the comics, Stryker is not an army officer, but he's a reverend, a Christian televangelist that is an anti-mutant activist (Because he believes all mutants are satanic) and runs his own hate group "The Purifiers".
 * In a deleted X-Men Origins: Wolverine scene, Stryker actually convinces Wolverine to have his memory erased, but the process is later interrupted.