James McAvoy and Elliot Page were part of an X-Men: Days of Future Past reunion panel at New York Comic-Con on Sunday, and both actors shared their thoughts on recent casting rumors relating to Marvel Studios' long-awaited X-Men reboot.
McAvoy played a younger take on Professor Charles Xavier from X-Men: First Class on, while Page debuted as Kitty Pryde in X-Men 3: The Last Stand before returning to (briefly) share the screen with McAvoy in Days of Future Past.
Though we don't know if there's any truth to these reports, Colman Domingo and Bella Ramsey are said to be on Marvel's radar to potentially take over as Professor X and Shadowcat in the MCU reboot.
“We're gonna see another Charles, another Kitty, probably before too long, perhaps,” moderator Josh Horowitz told the actors. “Depending on what you read on the internet, I've heard Colman Domingo. I've heard Bella Ramsey. I've heard a lot of different names. I don't know if you follow that or you hear that. What do you make of those names or, just generally, the idea of someone inheriting the mantle of these characters from you?”
Page hadn't heard those specific names, but seemed to be on board.
“I mean, yes, absolutely. I don't really follow [the casting rumors], but they sound fantastic. I mean, it’d be just so exciting to see people do a take on a new iteration [of X-Men].”
McAvoy also showed his support for Domingo (potentially) taking over as Xavier.
“Look, I’m excited to see what happens next. I was a fan before I was an employee and I'll be a fan again! You want it to be…I just can't wait for it to be…Oh no, that was going to sound bad. It's going to put a lot of pressure on people. Colman Domingo sounds amazing, though!”
Again, we have no idea if there's actually anything to these casting rumors. It's entirely possible that the studio has shown interest in Domingo and Ramsey, but that doesn't mean that they're actually attached to the movie.
We do know that things are finally moving forward on X-Men. Michael Lesslie is working on the script (we expect another writer to join him at some point), and Thunderbolts* director Jake Schreier recently confirmed that he will helm the project.
"I can’t say anything about it, but we’ve started work on X-Men, and that’s obviously very, very exciting," Schreier revealed during a recent interview with Empire. "There are so many things that I didn’t know about before I started [Thunderbolts*]. The biggest learning curve for me was the proportion of the action to the more emotional, character-driven scenes, and how, even though it’s more shooting days than I’ve ever had, they get eaten up quite quickly by the action stuff. By the time we got to the end of it, it felt like, 'Oh, now I feel like we get how to do this a little bit better.'"
Casting is believed to be underway, and a recent rumor claimed that the movie is scheduled to hit theaters on May 5, 2028.