This week at D23, Marvel Studios announced the main cast of the long-awaited X-Men reboot, which included a couple of surprising names.
Though Adam Driver had been rumored to be in line to play the movie's villain, we initially heard that he'd be playing Magneto. The Star Wars sequel trilogy star was introduced as Nathan Milbury - the name Dr. Nathaniel Essex took shortly after allowing himself to be transformed into Mr. Sinister by Apocalypse.
Inde Navarrette recently revealed that she had met with director Jake Schreier, but mentioned Mystique as the character she was most interested in playing. The Obsession breakout will actually take on the role of Rogue.
The rest of the officially announced cast are: Sadie Sink as Jean Grey, Kit Connor as Cyclops, Christopher Abbott as Professor Charles Xavier, Samara Weaving as Emma Frost, and Maya Boyd as Storm.
We are expecting a few more additions (Beast and Magneto, at the very least), but it's looking like the rumor that the core team will consist of the OG comic book crew (Cyclops, Jean, Beast, Ice-Man, and Angel) may not have been accurate.
We're obviously not sure whether Driver and Navarrette will adopt their respective characters' classic comic book appearances, but the following fan-art may give us some idea of how they'll look in the movie.
Weaving has also taken to Instagram to share some new photos of her White Queen-inspired D23 outfit.
Schreier said the following in a post-event interview with GMA.
“Digging into those comics like the Chris Claremont run and the newer Jonathan Hickman stuff. There are so many stories that are still untold.”
Sonny Lee Sung Jin (Beef) and Joanna Calo (The Bear) recently came aboard to write a new draft of Michael Lesslie's script.
Kevin Feige teased Marvel's plans for the X-Men shortly after SDCC.
"Acquiring the X-Men rights isn't just about... for example, Wolverine is an outstanding character, and we were able to team him up with Deadpool, which is great. But the X-Men are far more than just Wolverine, far more than the original team; fundamentally, it's a universe, a multi-stage saga. Much of that is what we're working towards."
"We’re constantly changing, constantly evolving, but having some guidance helps us act more purposefully, especially with X-Men—it’s already had 10 movies, some very, very good, some I think haven’t lived up to expectations—how do we plan the 'mutant saga' in a very grand way?"
"That being said, we have many more characters to explore in the future—the schedule is already booked until 2042, especially the X-Men," Feige added. "The X-Men have many unexplored characters from the Asia-Pacific region, particularly China, which we're very eager to explore. That's why I'm excited about the X-Men: we can show the world different types of heroes."