Marvel Studios’ chief Kevin Feige took to the stage at Disney’s annual D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event in Anaheim, California to reveal the upcoming cast members of the X-Men reboot film, where he was joined by director Jake Schreier (Thunderbolts*) and actress Sadie Sink, who made her debut as Jean Grey aka Marvel Girl in Sony’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
Playing Sink’s other half is Kit Connor (Rocketman) as Scott Summers aka Cyclops, and they are joined by Christopher Abbott (Wolf Man) as Charles Xavier aka Professor X, Samara Weaving (Ready Or Not) as Emma Frost, Inde Navarrette (Obsession) as Anna Marie aka Rogue, and newcomer Maya Boyd as Ororo Munroe aka Storm.
Feige noted that there are other actors cast, but didn’t reveal who they were, though he did introduce one more – Adam Driver (House of Gucci) – through a video, who initially teased that he would be playing Magneto as was initially rumoured weeks leading up to the event, but instead revealed that he was playing a sinister figure, Nathaniel Milbury.
Milbury is one of the many aliases of long-time X-Men adversary Nathaniel Essex aka Mr Sinister, an immortal biologist turned geneticist obessessed with using technology and mutant DNA to engineer a perfect superhuman race. In the comics, he believes that Scott Summers and Jean Grey’s mutant DNA are key in creating the perfect mutant.
While he has appeared in several X-Men animated shows, Mr Sinister has never appeared in the long-running X-Men live-action franchise at Fox, which debuted in 2000 and last assembled in 2019’s film “Dark Phoenix”. The original X-Men trilogy, which was followed by the Wolverine trilogy, starred Patrick Stewart as Charles Xavier, Ian McKellen as Magneto, Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, James Marsden as Cyclops, Halle Berry as Storm, Famke Janssen (Jean Grey), Anna Paquin as Rogue, Rebecca Romijn (Mystique), Kelsey Grammer (Beast) and Alan Cumming (Nightcrawler) were subsequently replaced by a cast of younger actors in prequel films led by James McAvoy Xavier, Michael Fassbender as Magneto, Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique, Nicholas Hoult as Beast, Sophie Turner as Jean Grey, Tye Sheridan as Cyclops, Alexandra Shipp as Storm, Evan Peters as Quicksilver and Kodi Smit-McPhee as Nightcrawler.
Several of them subsequently came together in 2014’s X-Men: Days of Future Past, a time travel story that took place in two time periods, allowing for the actors in the franchise who played the same character to appear in one film. Aside from Berry, Paquin and Janssen, key members of the original X-Men movie are also reprising their roles in this year’s Avengers: Doomsday, where they are expected to team up with the current heroes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to take on Doctor Doom (Robert Downey Jr.).
Hsals needs more space in his house, and more money in his bank account to pay for all the toys, collectibles and other geek related items that companies are churning out. Free-time? Girlfriend? Who’s got time for those?
Kevin Low
