UPDATE: The latest rumor is that Adam Driver is playing Sebastian Shaw. Three days after the role was pegged as Magneto, the scooper is now walking back the Magneto claim, apologizing for the mistake and saying he’s hearing Driver is playing Mister Sinister instead.
The X-Men reboot rumor cycle just produced its splashiest name yet.
Scooper MyTimeToShineHello posted Monday that Marvel Studios has landed its “first casting” for the MCU X-Men reboot, claiming Adam Driver has been cast as the film’s villain. No character was named.
We go over all the latest X-Men rumors below.
The character is said to be Magneto, backed up by Apocalyptic Horseman on X.
Related: Avengers: Doomsday trailer description leaks ahead of Comic-Con, and Doomsday is reportedly a mess as the Russos are struggling.
Adam Driver has been here before
If the pairing of Adam Driver and a Marvel tentpole sounds familiar, that’s because it is.
During the long casting churn for The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Driver was one of the biggest names repeatedly linked to Reed Richards, right alongside the Margot Robbie and Jodie Comer Sue Storm chatter that ran with it.
Worth a mention is that Driver was also reportedly up to play Doctor Doom in the MCU Fantastic Four reboot, a role now being played by Robert Downey Jr.
The same scooper has now floated three different X-Men villains
The same account has already tied Dwayne Johnson to Apocalypse and Wagner Moura to Mister Sinister.
Now add Adam Driver as an unnamed “villain.”
If all three land, that doesn’t necessarily mean they will all appear in one X-Men film together. They could easily be the villain of solo X-Men films.
It could be possible that Feige is trying to repeat what worked for the MCU: solo X-Men films leading to an Avengers-style X-Men event. Or, on the flip side, go the Deadpool & Wolverine route and make an X-Men event film right out of the gate with all the characters.
At the same time, rumors have said Wolverine won’t be a part of the MCU’s X-Men – just like in the comics – so the big build-up approach could be happening.
More X-Men reboot rumors
The rumor mill is stuffed with names, not unknowns including: Millie Bobby Brown reportedly in final talks, Sabrina Carpenter floated for Emma Frost or Dazzler, Anya Taylor-Joy for Magik, Sadie Sink long attached to Jean Grey, plus Sydney Sweeney and Cynthia Erivo.
Kevin Feige has described the reboot as youth-oriented, and one of the writers framed the project as “X-Men for everybody” — but “youth-oriented” has never meant “no recognizable actors,” and Marvel just built Avengers: Doomsday around Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom.
Marvel is casting
Stripping out all the noise surrounding the rumors and the confirmed picture looks like this: Jake Schreier is directing. The script is in progress. Schreier is taking meetings.
Notably, Obsession star Inde Navarrette confirmed she met with Schreier, but her role and if she got the part is unknown.
Why the timing matters
This lands two weeks before San Diego Comic-Con, where Marvel takes Hall H on July 25. Avengers: Doomsday is the main event, but Marvel has never been shy about teasing what’s next, and an X-Men update is exactly the kind of thing that stage exists for.
If there were a real, announceable X-Men villain casting, that’s where you’d expect it.
File Adam Driver alongside every other unverified name in our running X-Men reboot casting tracker.
