Marvel unveils X-Men cast: Adam Driver, Inde Navarrette, and more set for May 2028 film
SPOILER WARNING: This piece references plot details from Spider-Man: Brand New Day, including Sadie Sink’s role in the film.
Marvel unveiled the cast of its long-awaited X-Men reboot at D23 on Friday night, assembling a notably younger ensemble than the mutant team audiences have known from two decades of Fox films.
Disney and Marvel revealed that the new lineup includes Sadie Sink (Stranger Things, The Whale) as Jean Grey, Kit Connor (Heart Stopper Forever, Elden Ring, Warfare) as Cyclops, Christopher Abbott (Wolfman, Girls, Sanctuary) as Professor Charles Xavier, Samara Weaving (Ready or Not, Over Your Dead Body) as Emma Frost, Inde Navarrette (Obsession) as Rogue, and Broadway performer Maya Boyd as Storm, with Adam Driver (Marriage Story, Girls, House of Gucci) joining as the villain Mr. Sinister.
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The cast appeared onstage alongside Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige, with Driver joining via video. Feige said the actors had only just met backstage for the first time, and cautioned that the roster revealed Friday isn’t the complete lineup. Driver, for his part, said he and Feige had discussed him joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe for years before they “found something perfect with characters I feel very deeply about.”
The younger cast marks a deliberate departure from the X-Men most audiences already know. A number of actors from the 2000s Fox films — including Patrick Stewart as Professor X, Ian McKellen as Magneto, James Marsden as Cyclops, Rebecca Romijn as Mystique, and Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler — are set to return this December in Avengers: Doomsday. Channing Tatum’s variant of Gambit is also set to appear, with the character formally appearing in Deadpool & Wolverine after a decade of the purported film being stuck in developmental hell. A version of Gambit played by Taylor Sheridan appears in X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
Notably absent from Friday’s announcement was any casting for Wolverine, but Hugh Jackman did tease that he and Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool could appear in Avengers: Doomsday.
Some of the case announcements have been known for a few weeks. Connor’s role as Cyclops and Weaving’s as Emma Frost had previously been reported, and the Hollywood Reporter had exclusively reported the prior week that Abbott was a strong contender for Professor X. Navarrette recently broke out in the summer hit Obsession, while Boyd is best known for leading the Broadway production of & Juliet.
The film is set for release on May 5, 2028.
