To me, my X-Men!
After years of speculation, and a furious few months of screen tests and dealmaking, Marvel unveiled its X-Men cast at D23 on Friday night.
The movie will star Sadie Sink (Jean Grey), Kit Connor (Cyclops), Christopher Abbott (Prof. X), Samara Weaving (Emma Frost), Inde Navarrette (Rogue) and Maya Boyd (Storm). Adam Driver is also among the cast as the villain Mr. Sinister, with the film landing a release date of May 5, 2028.
The cast was onstage with Marvel boss Kevin Feige, with Driver making a video appearance.
“Kevin and I have been talking for years about me joining MCU,” Driver said, adding they had “found something perfect with characters I feel very deeply about.”
Some of the cast was known going into D23. Sink was the first piece of the puzzle, with her Jean Grey debuting in Spider-Man: Brand New Day last month. And it was already reported that Heartstopper Kit Connor would play Cyclops and that Ready or Not star Samara Weaving would play Emma Frost. And the Heat Vision newsletter exclusively reported last week that Tony-nominated actor Abbott had tested and was a strong contender for Prof. X.
As for the rest of the cast, Navarrette shot to fame starring in summer breakout hit Obsession.
Boyd comes from the world of Broadway, where she led & Juliet.
Abbott, meanwhile broke through on Girls and has varied screen roles, including last year’s Wolfman, and was nominated for at the most recent Tonys for Death of a Salesman.
The cast will all be wrangled by Thunderbolts director Jake Schreier, who is directing X-Men. Both Sink and Schreier joined Fiege on stage to reveal the new cast, which as the Marvel topper revealed, “they just met backstage for the very first time.” Feige also cautioned that this was not the complete line-up.
When Disney purchased 20th Century Fox in 2019, the key question among Marvel fans was when the X-Men would come to the MCU.
Stan Lee and Jack Kirby introduced the X-Men in 1963, with Prof. X leading an original class of Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast, Angel and Ice Man against Magneto. It was a foundational text for comic book culture.
It also spawned 2000’s X-Men, the Bryan Singer-directed feature that kicked off the modern age of superhero movies and which made Hugh Jackman into a star thanks to his turn as Wolverine. A number of actors from the 2000s movies will return for Avengers: Doomsday, including Patrick Stewart (Professor X), Ian McKellen (Magneto), James Marsden (Cyclops), Rebecca Romijn (Mystique), Alan Cumming (Nightcrawler) and Kelsey Grammer (Beast). In addition, Channing Tatum, who played the card-throwing mutant Gambit in Deadpool & Wolverine, is among the Doomsday cast.
The 2010s revamp of the X-Men, meanwhile, starred James McAvoy as Prof. X, Michael Fassbender as Magneto and Jennifer Lawrence, Mystique and Nicholas Hoult as Beast. Those stars did not enter the MCU in the way the 2000s X-Men have.
Maya Boyd will play Storm
Patrick Donovan
