Marvel Studios finally pulled back the curtain on its long-awaited X-Men reboot at D23 this past weekend, confirming Sadie Sink, Kit Connor, Christopher Abbott, Samara Weaving, Inde Navarrette, Maya Boyd, and Adam Driver as the first wave of mutants headed for the MCU. Dig a little deeper into each actor’s history and the casting starts to look like a web of coincidences, callbacks, and inside jokes. Here’s what’s flying under the radar.
Long before they were MCU nemeses, Christopher Abbott and Adam Driver co-starred on HBO's Girls, where Adam Driver played Adam Sackler and Christopher Abbott played Charlie Dattolo — two young guys navigating messy relationships in Brooklyn. More than a decade later, Marvel has reunited them as arguably the two most ideologically opposed characters in the entire X-Men mythos.
Because of his on-screen chemistry with Heartstopper co-star Joe Locke (who already plays Wiccan in the MCU), fans spent years fan-casting Connor as Wiccan's real-life comic-book boyfriend, Hulkling. Connor repeatedly shot the rumors down in interviews. He's now landed in the MCU after all but as Cyclops. He becomes the fourth live-action actor to play Scott Summers, following James Marsden and Tye Sheridan.
Samara, best known for horror hits like Ready or Not, is the niece of Australian actor Hugo Weaving, who played the original Red Skull in Captain America: The First Avenger. That makes Emma Frost the second character in the Weaving family to debut in the MCU on the wrong side of the law.
While most of her new castmates arrive with substantial screen résumés, Maya is a Broadway performer making her feature-film debut as one of the most iconic characters in the entire X-Men roster. She trained in musical theatre at the University of Michigan, made her Broadway debut in Merrily We Roll Along while still a student, and later performed as an onstage swing and understudy in & Juliet — sometimes covering the title role eight times a week. Her casting also marks the first time a darker-skinned actress has played Storm on screen, following criticism of the character's casting in earlier Fox films.
After breaking out in the surprise horror hit Obsession, Inde used her press tour to openly campaign for the role of Mystique and confirmed she'd met with director Jake Schreier about it. Marvel gave her Rogue instead — which comes with its own twist, since in the comics, Mystique is Rogue's adoptive mother. If Mystique is ever introduced in this franchise, Inde may end up at the centre of that relationship regardless of which role she plays.