Rumors About MCU X-Men Casting Abound
The MCU version of the X-Men may be taking shape. In May, we learned that Marvel was fast-tracking an X-Men movie, partly because of the “success” of X-Men ‘97 (they must mean that it was well-liked by people who saw it because it didn’t get good numbers on Disney+) and partly because… you know… they’re the X-Men. So far, all we’ve learned for sure is that Michael Lesslie of The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (whatever) and The Little Drummer Girl (YES!) will write the script, but today brought some rumors about potential cast members for the new squad of X-Men. In the newest episode of The Hot Mic, scooper Jeff Sneider has heard that Harris Dickinson of The King’s Man, The Iron Claw, and Babygirl (which I really want to see because I miss the erotic thriller) is in consideration for Cyclops. Two other rumored names are Stranger Things’ Sadie Sink for Jean Grey and Julia Butters (Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood) for Kitty Pride. Moreover, Sneider and host John Rocha discussed a rumor from MyTimeToShineHello that Javier Bardem is going to play Mr. Sinister, the X-Men film’s villain, and while Sneider didn’t confirm it, he said that it fits with what he’s heard about Marvel negotiating with Bardem. In more general news, Sneider says that House of the Dragon actor Tom Glynn-Carney had a good meeting with Marvel and that Denzel Washington is appearing in the next Black Panther movie and could possibly be Magneto, but that’s just guesswork. (They then gush about how much they’d love a black Magneto, how canon doesn’t matter, etc. Please clap.) As for the film itself, Sneider says it will begin shooting in 2026 and be released in 2027, the same year as Avengers: Secret Wars; Rocha reports that a trusted source of his says it will arrive in theaters two or three months after Secret Wars. (Sneider thinks it will be shortly after Secret Wars, but not that short.) You can watch the X-Men talk in the first fifteen minutes of the video below:
Let’s tackle the casting first. To get this out of the way, do you find it as hilarious as I do that after patting themselves on the back about how much they don’t care about canon and would love a race-swapped Magneto, they only considered black actresses for Storm? These demonstrations are as hollow as a log. As for the actual choices, I’m not sure about all of them. The actors all look the parts, which, if these rumors are true, makes me think Marvel really is going to stick to more traditional casting choices going forward – which would rule out Denzel as Magneto. (Why would they introduce Magneto in a Black Panther movie, anyway? And that’s even if Black Panther 3 is made and released before X-Men, which is not known or even speculated.) The only movie I remember seeing Harris Dickson in is The King’s Man, which I liked a lot; Dickson was good in it, but I didn’t get much of a Cyclops vibe from him. His character wasn’t a leader, and while he was heroic, it was a different sort of heroism than Cyclops. Then again, if this is all true, Marvel is going young with the X-Men, so maybe this will be a rookie Cyclops who hasn’t been made the leader yet, like in X-Men: Apocalypse. Just the same, though, he’d have to show some leadership capabilities for his progression to make sense. Julia Butters would be a great choice for Kitty Pride; she was excellent in Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, and she was only ten years old when that came out (meaning she was probably nine when she filmed it). I don’t feel strongly about Sadie Sink one way or the other; she definitely looks like a young Jean Grey, but I’ve only seen her in Stranger Things, and she’s fine in that, but I didn’t go nuts for her like everyone else seems to have. Javier Bardem would be terrific as Mr. Sinister; Bardem was in talks to play Galactus in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, a role that went to Ralph Ineson, and Sneider says that the sticking point was Bardem’s asking price, which was too high for a movie they wanted to make as cheaply as possible. However, X-Men will likely have a higher budget due to the characters’ popularity, so they could afford Bardem as the bad guy in that one. (This leads me to believe that Wolverine will be… a familiar face, one that Marvel is supposedly keen on keeping around and who just starred in their biggest movie since Spider-Man: No Way Home.) As for Tom Glynn-Carney, I’m gonna go out on a limb and say he’ll be Angel if he’s cast; you can’t ask for a closer likeness than him.
In relation to the rumors about the timing of the X-Men movie, here’s the other rumor going around, courtesy of Daniel RPK (whose blog is behind a paywall):
The Russo Brothers reportedly signed a new deal with Marvel Studios to oversee multiple new projects including the ‘X-MEN’ film.
(via @DanielRPK) pic.twitter.com/H1Ku2SpCRk
— Cosmic Marvel (@cosmic_marvel) January 26, 2025
Now, keep in mind that “oversee” doesn’t mean that they’ll be directing X-Men, or necessarily anything else. That leads me to believe this could be true because if X-Men is coming out a few months after Secret Wars, there’s no way the Russo Brothers are directing it; between Secret Wars and Doomsday, they’re probably barely going to eat and sleep as it is. What this sounds like to me is what Marvel asked Joss Whedon to do in Phase 2 and help shape the films creatively. And that’s a smart move; they need some coherency again, a sense that their overarching story is leading somewhere, which has been sorely lacking after Endgame. And the Russo Brothers are probably the guys to do it, considering how successful their Marvel films have all been. It’s also widely understood that Secret Wars will shape the MCU going forward, so I can buy that the Russos are consulting with other filmmakers as they develop the film and shaping X-Men and some others that way, even if X-Men is coming out so soon after their movie. Given what we know about Captain America: Brave New World – that it involves the discovery of adamantium – I think Marvel is already pivoting from the multiverse to the mutants, though not fast enough for my taste: we’ve still got that Stark-variant Doctor Doom to contend with. We won’t know for sure if any of this is on the level until announcements start getting made, but Sneider is a reliable scooper, and the casting choices make a lot of sense, so I tend to believe this report. If Rocha is right, we’ll find out soon enough.
Let us know what you think of these rumored X-Men casting choices in the comments!
***
If you want to know what kind of political leanings movies have or just talk about cinema, check out the movie ratings community Criticless.
Get Your Geeks + Gamers merch here!
