The news cycle has understandably been dominated by Superman over the past couple of weeks, so we thought we'd break things up a little with a good ol' X-Men casting rumor.
Now that Marvel Studios' long-awaited reboot has assigned a director in Jake Schreier (Thunderbolts*), casting is expected to begin very soon (if it hasn't already), and we now have another name to add to the list of actors that have been mentioned in connection with the key role of Jean Grey.
On this week's episode of The Hot Mic, Jeff Sneider mentioned that Elle Fanning might be in the mix to play the powerful mutant, who was previously portrayed in live-action by Famke Janssen in the original 20th Century Fox movies and Sophie Turner in X-Men: Apocalypse and Dark Phoenix.
Fanning's recent projects include A Complete Unknown, All The Bright Places, and Hulu's The Great, for which she was nominated for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy in the 2021 Golden Globes. Next up, she has a dual role in Predator: Badlands.
During a recent appearance at the Mediterrane Film Festival in Malta, Schreier was asked how he'd approach the reboot and what he'd do differently to the previous movies from the now defunct 20th Century Studios era.
“Even if I were confirmed on that movie, I don't think I would be allowed to answer that question," Schreier responded. "I guess what I would say is that it always starts from character and working with great writers and collaborators, and certainly thinking about how to do something different with any project that you take on. That's as much as I can say.”
It seems pretty obvious that Schreier will end up stepping behind the camera, and we will likely get an official announcement at SDCC this month.
Schreier has proven that he can deliver on a story featuring a team of misfit characters (Thunderbolts* may have underperformed at the box office, but it was well-received by fans and critics), but he still seems to be a somewhat divisive choice for this project.
The likes of Harris Dickinson, Margaret Qualley, and Julia Butters are said to be on the studio's radar (they were reportedly in contention to play Cyclops, Rogue and Kitty Pryde, but we don't know if this is still the case), along with Alien: Romulus star David Jonsson and Trinity Bliss, who may be in line to play Jubilee.
Other names that have popped up in the rumor mill include Hunter Schafer (Mystique), Ayo Edebiri (Storm) and Javier Bardem (Mr. Sinister).
Here's what Kevin Feige had to say about his "10-year plan" for the Mutant Saga in a recent interview.
"I think you will see that continues in our next few movies with some X-Men players that you might recognize. Right after that, the whole story of Secret Wars really leads us into a new age of mutants and of the X-Men. Again, [it’s] one of those dreams come true. We finally have the X-Men back."
Macbeth (2015), The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023) and Assassin's Creed (2016) scribe Michael Lesslie penned the script, but we wouldn't be surprised if another writer (or two) were brought in to give it another pass before the movie enters production.
No release date has been set.