William Stryker, Jr.

"Mutants. I don't hate them, I just know what they can do. You don't realize this, but we are at war. I took an oath: Protect this country. My name is William Stryker, and I am not a monster. I am simply a patriot."

- William Stryker

William Stryker Jr. was an army colonel set on destroying mutants. He is responsible for the creation of Wolverine's metal claws and the creation of Weapon XI. Over the course of his life, he searched for various ways to destroy all mutants. His son Jason Stryker is also a mutant. During an encounter with the X-Men, he was killed by a flood while trapped helplessly by Magneto.

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

X-Men: Days of Future Past
In 1973, William Stryker approached a military camp in Vietnam, ordaining for the release of four mutant soldiers into his care (Havok, Toad, Ink and the Mutant Soldier) for Bolivar Trask's research. A military general approached Stryker and interrupted the procedure, revealing himself to be Mystique in disguise. She quickly defeated Stryker and all of the soldiers, and allowed for the mutants to return back to America. Stryker recovered and tried to stop the plane from taking off, to no avail.

X-Men: Days of Future Past
Stryker was in Paris during the Paris Peace Accord, where Trask outlined his plans for a safeguard technology against mutant incursions in the Sentinels. Trask activated his Mutant Detection Device, revealing the presence of Mystique posing as a South Vietnamese general. Mystique again defeated Stryker and the other armed guards in the room, before pulling the gun on and killing Trask. Stryker recovered and fired a taser at Mystique, temporarily immobilising her.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Stryker starts off as a Major trying to recruit Victor Creed and James Howlett to join Weapon X. While searching for a mysterious rock, Stryker threatens to kill civilians to garner information, causing James Howlett to leave the team.

Through the years Stryker begins working with Creed and using Wade Wilson as Weapon XI. He tells Creed to kill all the other members of the team and to have Logan's girlfriend Kayla (Silver Fox) - an agent of Stryker's keeping an eye on Logan- fake her death.

After Logan was left for dead by Victor, Col. Stryker persuades Logan to become Wolverine. The process is successful, and Stryker wants to use Logan's DNA for the XI, but Logan hears this and escapes. After General Munson tries to shut Weapon X down, learning of Stryker's son and believing that he was too emotionally close to the situation, Stryker kills him.

Also Stryker kidnaps mutants, including a younger Cyclops (Scott Summers) in order to pass their abilities into Weapon XI. The others escape with Kayla while Logan and Victor battle Weapon XI. Weapon XI was defeated, but Stryker shoots adamantium bullets in Logan's head, causing amnesia as a result of the damage done to his brain; although the physical injury heal, his memories seem to be permanently gone. Stryker attempts to shoot a dying Kayla, but using her power of persuasion, Kayla forces Stryker to "walk until his feet bleed - and keep walking". Stryker unwillingly does so.

As he is walking down the road (now looking a bit more like his appearance in X2), he is picked up by the military police who arrived to bring him in for questioning about his connection with General Munson's murder.

X2: X-Men United: The Movie Prequel: Wolverine
To be added

X2: X-Men United: The Movie Prequel: Nightcrawler
To be added

X2: X-Men United
Rather than having killed his son, Jason at birth, Stryker sent him to Xavier's school in hopes of curing him, regarding mutation as a disease that must be cured. Xavier had no interest or belief in 'curing' mutants, which angered Stryker. Additionally, Jason continued to grow angry, resentful, and vindictive towards his parents; he tortured them by planting illusions in their brains until his mother committed suicide by drilling into her own brain in order to "bore the images out". Stryker then gave his son a lobotomy to make him more docile, making him Mutant 143.

He attacks the X-Mansion learning the information from brainwashing Magneto. He kidnaps Cyclops and Professor Xavier and brainwashes them both. Jason, under his father's direction brainwashes Xavier- after Xavier learns that Stryker is the mastermind behind an assassination attempt on the President by a brainwashed Nightcrawler- into using a reproduction of Cerebro to kill all mutants, while Cyclops is left to confront the attacking X-Men.

Magneto, wearing a helmet designed to shield against telepathic attacks, is able to reach Xavier while the X-Men are incapacitated by the psychic assault, but then has Jason make Xavier use Cerebro II to kill ordinary humans. Which Stryker is shocked that Cerebro II is turned against him. At his direction, Mystique impersonates Stryker and instructs Jason of a change in plans, which Jason then communicates to the brainwashed Xavier. Magneto and Mystique escape, and soon thereafter Storm and Nightcrawler enter Cerebro II and disrupt Jason's illusion, allowing Xavier to break free from his control before any humans or mutants are killed.

Stryker attempts to escape, but his attempts are foiled by Wolverine and Magneto, who chains William to a large block of debris. In his last moments, he confronts Wolverine about how he apparently volunteered to have the adamantium put in his skeleton, and asks him whether he would actually side with mutants. Looking at the young mutant he was carrying to safety, a young boy with a lizard-like tongue (Artie Maddicks), Wolverine informs Stryker that he would "take his chances with him" and left him to die. As Wolverine walks away, Stryker bellows after him that "one day someone will finish what I've started. One day!" Given his immobilised status, Stryker presumably dies when the nearby dam bursts.

Later, Xavier and the X-Men gave the President the files from Stryker's office containing the evidence of Stryker's crimes.

X-Men: Days of Future Past
"You must really despise these mutants."

- William Stryker to Bolivar Trask

Stryker was in Paris during the Paris Peace Accord, where Trask outlined his plans for a safeguard technology against mutant incursions in the Sentinels. Trask activated his Mutant Detection Device, revealing the presence of Mystique posing as a South Vietnamese general. Mystique again defeated Stryker and the other armed guards in the room, before pulling the gun on Trask. Stryker recovered and fired a taser at Mystique, temporarily immobilising her, whilst Magneto arrived along with Logan and Charles and used his powers to attach the taser to Stryker instead.

As Stryker laid convulsing on the floor, Wolverine looked at him and immediately underwent traumatic visions of his Weapon X days, which caused him to temporarily snap out of Kitty's time travel. Stryker then ran out of the room, glancing at Wolverine's bone claws. Back in Washington D.C., Nixon unveiled Trask's Sentinels outside the White House as the first line of defence for America's security, with Stryker in attendence. When Magneto activated the Sentinels, Trask berated Stryker for disobeying his commands.

As soon as the Sentinels began firing on the humans, Stryker shepherded Trask into the metal bunker underneath the White House along with the President and the cabinet. Unbeknownst to them, Mystique had infiltrated the bunker in another attempt to assassinate Trask. Trask identified Mystique's presence in the bunker via his mutant detection device, prompting Stryker and the others to subdue her and raise their guns against her.

Magneto used his powers to disarm the men and pull the bunker out of the White House. Stryker tried to kill Mystique in the ensuing chaos, using a specialised plastic gun. Mystique easily knocked him out and disarmed Stryker, using his handgun to deal a bullet wound to Magneto's neck, causing him to fall down.

Mystique later posed as William Stryker when fishing Wolverine out of Potomac River, where Magneto had sent him.

Character traits
William Stryker was 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
 * Jason Stryker - Son.
 * Professor X - 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 and Bodyguard.
 * Lady Deathstrike - Bodyguard.
 * Magneto - Enemy.
 * Cyclops, Quicksilver, Emma, Gambit - Prisoners.
 * Bolivar Trask - Idol.

Appearances/Actors

 * Canon (4 films)
 * X-Men: First Class - (mentioned only)
 * X-Men: Days of Future Past - Josh Helman
 * X-Men Origins: Wolverine - Danny Huston
 * X2: X-Men United (First appearance) - Brian Cox and Brad Loree (young)
 * Canon (2 comics)
 * X2: X-Men United: The Movie Prequel: Wolverine
 * X2: X-Men United: The Movie Prequel: Nightcrawler

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.
 * Josh Helman revealed to IGN that he was originally cast as Cain Marko/Judgernaunt in Days of Future Past but was offered the role of Stryker after Juggernaut was omitted from the story.

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.
 * Xavier hints that Stryker was not drowned when the dam burst, but obliterated by the sheer mass of the water that collapsed on him, as he says it should have done to Jean Grey were it not for her telekinetical coccoon.