Yesterday, the news broke that Marvel Studios' X-Men reboot has cast Kit Connor as Scott Summers/Cyclops. Thunderbolts* director Jake Schreier is at the helm of the movie and is assembling a young cast to lead this franchise into the future.
Connor is 22, and Sadie Sink—who is playing the MCU's Jean Grey—is 24. Samara Weaving, who will take on the role of Emma Frost, is 34, an age difference that suggests this reboot won't necessarily explore Scott's romance with The White Queen.
Connor's casting has generated a lot of excitement among X-Men fans, and new artwork by @bosslogic reveals what the actor could look like in Scott's comic-accurate costume.
We know very little about Schreier's plans for the X-Men reboot. However, it's looking increasingly likely that the movie will revolve around Professor X putting this team together rather than picking up with them as an established group of heroes. Of course, if Avengers: Secret Wars reboots the MCU, then perhaps this iteration of the X-Men will have been feared and hated since their teens.
Connor is an English actor who rose to international fame as Nick Nelson in Netflix's Heartstopper. He's also appeared in His Dark Materials, Rocketman, Warfare, and voiced Brightbill in DreamWorks' The Wild Robot.
Introduced by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1963's The X-Men #1, Scott Summers is both the leader of the X-Men and one of the team's most iconic members. Born with the ability to unleash devastating optic blasts from his eyes, Scott relies on a ruby-quartz visor to control his powers.
As Professor Charles Xavier's first student, Cyclops has become renowned for his tactical brilliance, unwavering sense of duty, and often complicated relationship with fellow X-Man Jean Grey. During Grant Morrison's New X-Men run, Cyclops cheated on Jean and became romantically involved with Emma Frost for several years before he and Jean picked up where they left off during the Krakoan Age.
Cyclops was previously portrayed in live-action by James Marsden (Sonic the Hedgehog) in Fox's original X-Men trilogy and X-Men: Days of Future Past. Later, Ready Player One star Tye Sheridan played a younger version of the character in X-Men: Apocalypse, Deadpool 2, and Dark Phoenix.
"The X-Men are far more than just Wolverine, far more than the original team; fundamentally, it's a universe, a multi-stage saga," Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige recently revealed. "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," he concluded.
Check out this fan art of Connor as the MCU's Cyclops in the Instagram post below.