It was open season on all things Marvel during this week's episode of The Hot Mic, and while co-host Jeff Sneider didn't reveal anything outright, he did drop a few intriguing hints about several upcoming projects, and one fairly significant - let's call it a "suggestion" - relating to Denzel Washington's mysterious MCU role.
Washington has already confirmed that he is set to appear in Ryan Coogler's Black Panther 3, but we don't know who he's playing yet. Sneider notes that it's "totally possible that he could be playing an X-Men character," and after asking the listeners to "do the leap," he says he "definitely thinks Denzel could be the villain of X-Men."
To this, John Rocha asks, "so Denzel is playing Magneto, is what you're saying?"
Again, there's nothing too concrete here, but Sneider does seem to know more than he's willing to come right out and say. Washington may not be playing Magneto, specifically, but we'd say there's a decent chance he will have a major role - most likely as an antagonist - in the X-Men movie.
Here's what Marvel producer Nate Moore had to say about Washington's MCU role in a recent interview.
"If that manifests, which we're gonna try, I think it will probably be somebody from canon. Who that is, is early days. We honestly haven't had really substantive creative conversations with Ryan, mostly because he's finishing his film Sinners, which is gonna come out this year and is gonna be great."
"So again it's too early to say, but obviously if an actor of the caliber of Denzel Washington wants in, we're gonna figure out a way to make that happen,"
As for when we might see this elusive X-Men reboot, Rocha believes that the "big unspoken secret in Hollywood" is that the movie will release 2-3 months after Avengers: Secret Wars in 2027. Sneider agrees that the film will likely hit theaters that year, but feels it will be more like 5-6 months after Secret Wars.
Marvel does seem to be making moves on this project behind-the-scenes. Though no director is attached (that we know of), the amount of casting rumors from various reliable sources doing the rounds would seem to indicate that the studio is quietly assembling its roster of mutants ahead of a major announcement down the line.
Previous rumors have claimed that Harris Dickinson (Babygirl, The Iron Claw, Triangle of Sadness) and Jack Champion (Avatar, Scream 6) are being eyed to play Cyclops, with Stranger Things alum Sadie Sink a likely pick for Jean Grey. We've also heard that The Bear's Ayo Edebiri is on the studio's radar to play Storm. Kitty Pryde and Gambit (but will it be Channing Tatum?) are also expected to be on the team.
More recently, Hunter Schafer (Cuckoo, Euphoria) has been rumored to be up for Mystique, and Julia Butters (The Gray Man, The Fablemans) is said to be in talks to play Kitty Pryde.
Michael Lesslie is currently working on the script.
If some of the X-Men make their debut in the next Avengers movies (which they are rumored to do), there's a chance we could get some official casting news fairly soon.