We're still waiting for an official cast announcement for Marvel Studios' X-Men reboot (SDCC seems likely), but there have been a lot of rumors doing the rounds over the past few months. Casting is now believed to be underway, however, and a couple of very interesting names were mentioned during last night's episode of The Hot Mic.
According to Jeff Sneider, Marvel is looking at Odessa A'Zion to play Rogue and Peter Claffey to take on the role of Beast.
A'Zion can currently be seen in HBO's I Love LA, and has also appeared in the likes of Marty Supreme, the Hellraiser reboot, and Until Dawn. Claffey will be best known for playing Ser Duncan the Tall in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
Rogue was previously played by Anna Paquin in the 20th Century Fox X-Men movies, while both Kelsey Grammer and Nicholas Hoult have played Hank McCoy. The Frasier star will reprise the role in Avengers: Doomsday, but it doesn't sound like he'll be sticking around for the X-Men reboot.
Sneider stresses that he has only heard that the studio is interested in A'Zion and Claffey for these characters, and, as far as he knows, neither actor is actually in talks.
The insider has also heard that Shawn Levy's new Deadpool movie with Ryan Reynolds (and most likely) Hugh Jackman will be the next MCU feature to enter production after Avengers: Secret Wars, which could mean that we will be waiting quite a bit longer to see Marvel's merry band of mutants assemble on the big screen.
Interestingly, Sneider's co-host John Rocha's source has heard that the reboot's team will be comprised of the original comic book lineup of Cyclops, Beast, Jean Grey, Angel and Iceman. If accurate, Rogue could be a late addition to the roster.
Director Jake Schreier recently revealed that his Thunderbolts* scribes Sonny Lee Sung Jin (Beef) and Joanna Calo (The Bear) had come aboard the MCU reboot to write a new draft of Michael Lesslie's script, and the former confirmed his involvement while also revealing two of his favorite characters earlier this week.
"Well, it's X-Men. It's something I grew up with. I have fond memories of my father and me waking up on Saturday mornings to watch the X-Men cartoon. I read the comics," said Sung Jin during an interview with Variety. "So when he comes calling about that, no matter how much you've got going on."
"I love Gambit. I also love a lot of the side characters. I love Jubilee. Everyone goes for Cyclops and Wolverine, but for me growing up, I always loved the supporting members," he added.
While this shouldn't be taken as any kind of confirmation that Gambit or Jubilee will be part of the rebooted team, it could suggest that there will be more of a focus on certain characters that have been underutilised in the past.
Schreier was even more tight-lipped, declining to even mention his favourite mutants for fear of giving something away.
"I’ve worked with Sonny [Lee] and Joanna on so many things,” he said. “Anytime you can work with people that you care so deeply about and who are so talented at their craft, and you have made something together where you have a shorthand, if you can keep going with that, it always seems like a good thing to do.”