To me, my X-Men casting news — and this one’s a bit of a Heartstopper, folks. As Spider-Man: Brand New Day, the growing Avengers: Doomsday hype, and some recent mutant-based developments in the MCU have left us asking “Is Marvel back?”, it looks like Marvel Studios is busying itself assembling an exciting (X-citing?) team for Jake Schreier’s upcoming X-Men movie. Following last week’s news that Samara Weaving is reportedly set to play Emma Frost in the Thunderbolts* director’s latest, Deadline is now reporting that Heartstopper breakout Kit Connor is Marvel’s pick to play Scott Summers — aka Cyclops — in the movie.
In recent weeks there has been a lot of talk about who will play Summers, the optic-blasting, visor-wearing de facto captain of the X-Men, in Schreier’s movie — talk that’s ramped up considerably now that *SPOILER WARNING* we know who’ll be playing two of Scott’s most closely connected fellow X-Men, Jean Grey and Emma Frost, in the MCU. *SPOILER ENDS* And while the streets had been whispering Cooper Hoffman’s name, it looks like it will be Connor — who has impressed of late in the likes of Warfare and the touching Heartstopper Forever — who is destined to folllow in James Marsden and Tye Sheridan’s footsteps (and X-Men ’97 voice actor Ray Chase’s, er, vocal steps) as Schreier’s Cyke.
For Connor, this Cyclops casting marks the second major franchise movie on the young actor’s horizon — as he’s also reuniting with Alex Garland on his Warfare director’s forthcoming A24 Elden Ring adaptation. And with Deadline and other Hollywood trades’ sources indicating that Kevin Feige has been meeting with a lot of X-Men hopefuls recently ahead of D23 next week, we suspect we’ll be bringing more X-Men casting to you in the days and weeks ahead. Could we get the whole team on stage in Anaheim before the summer’s through? Watch this space!
