It looks like our team of mutant heroes will be facing off against Mr. Sinister in the upcoming X-Men reboot.
Though this isn't the first time we've heard that Dr. Nathaniel Essex might be introduced in the movie, the script has reportedly gone through a few changes over the past few months. However, Daniel Richtman believes that Sinister is still the main villain in the most recent draft.
Though new actors will almost certainly be brought in to play the main characters for this reboot, most of the cast of the 20th Century Fox era films are set to return for Avengers: Doomsday. They are also expected to appear in Secret Wars, so the OG team might factor in to the new X-Men's debut in some capacity.
Though no casting announcements have come in, several actors are believed to be on the studio's radar for key roles.
Harris Dickinson (Babygirl, The Iron Claw, Triangle of Sadness) and Jack Champion (Avatar, Scream 6) are reportedly being eyed to play Cyclops, with The Bear's Ayo Edebiri and Jurassic World: Dominion star DeWanda Wise in line to play Storm. Kitty Pryde and Gambit are also expected to be on the team.
More recently, Hunter Schafer (Cuckoo, Euphoria) was rumored to be up for Mystique, Julia Butters (The Gray Man, The Fablemans) is said to be in talks to play Pryde, and Margaret Qualley might be on the studio's radar for Rogue.
Earlier this year, we reported on a slightly more out-there rumor that Denzel Washington might be set to play Magneto.
No director is attached (that we know of), but the amount of casting rumors from various reliable sources doing the rounds would seem to indicate that the studio is quietly assembling its new line-up.
Progress is being clearly made on introducing the Children of the Atom to the MCU, and Marvel Studios' Head of Streaming Brad Winderbaum recently confirmed that the X-Men movie is in active development, while also responding to (well, more side-stepping) a question about that recent X Academy/Academy X Disney+ series rumor.
"I think anybody could say anything online, and it hits the rumor mill and people get excited," Winderbaum told Screen Rant. "Right now, we are still working on X-Men 97 season 2. It's coming together amazingly, and the scripts for season 3 are insane. That is certainly scratching the X-Men itch for me on television. And there is an X-Men feature in development right now, so that is the focus of X-Men currently."