Well, this was a little surprising on the heels of Samara Weaving (“Ready or Not 2: Here I Come”) landing the Emma Frost part and Kit Connor (“Elden Ring,” “Warfare”) circling the new Scott Summers/Cyclops in Marvel Studios‘ new “X-Men” reboot film; some other rumored names are being supported in the latest Heat Vision newsletter from the folks over at The Hollywood Reporter.
In that trade newsletter published on Friday, THR reveals they believe that former “Star Wars” actor Adam Driver is indeed being courted to play a villain (after folks from Nexus Point News orbit were first talking that up), but seemingly it won’t be Mister Sinister (Jon Hamm is still game to play him, mind you), William Stryker, or the third iteration of Magneto; instead, they’re supporting what my own theory was a while ago: Sebastian Shaw. The leader of the Hellfire Club, who is a big player in the whole anti-mutant movement (already teased in “Spider-Man: Brand New Day“) and ended up getting control of The Sentinel Program (will appear in “Avengers: Doomsday“).
Shaw would make sense if Frost is in the film, given she is the White Queen, a key player among the Hellfire Club, a group of evil mutants that are more concerned about their own dominance and power than the fate of other mutants (they ultimately help the humans who will end up imprisoning and killing their kind).
You might remember that Kevin Bacon played a version of Shaw in Matthew Vaughn‘s Cold War-era origin film “X-Men: First Class,” but his motivations for making the planet mutant-only were not exactly a comic-accurate take, as with most of the Singerverse, they tinkered a little too much with the villain to boost Magneto’s engaging revenge plot to track down and kill former Nazis. We suspect we’d get a more dastardly version of the Hellfire Club if this rings true, leading to grim plot beats like the country of Genosha tricking mutants to come to the island nation only to stick them in work camps by using mutant suppression collars (there was a nod to them in “Brand New Day”).
We suspect this could mean a new take on Donald Pierce (Boyd Holbrook previously played a non-mutant take in “Logan“) among unused members such as Harry Leland (fingers crossed they consider Nick Offerman for the part, who once taped an audition to play Wolverine in the 2000 movie), Selene, and other cohorts.
That’s not all, as they mention American actors Christopher Abbott (“Wolf Man,” “Poor Things”) and Tom Pelphrey (“Iron Fist,” “Task”) have already tested for Professor Charles Xavier, aka Professor X (played by Patrick Stewart and James McAvoy in the Fox films). Alongside a minor mention of the Bill Skarsgard (“John Wick 4”) rumor making the rounds, which they stopped short of backing up. While Xavier has been played as British in the movies, he’s mostly known as a New Yorker since he was a child, so the British accent likely isn’t coming back.
All certainly neat news, while also revealing that Asa Germann (“Gen V,” “Scream 7”) and Cooper Hoffman (he was knocked out of the running early on, reportedly due to scheduling) were wanted for Cyclops; the former may very well land another part (Dr. Hank McCoy, Angel or Iceman?) after testing to play Summers.
Whatever the ultimate casting lineup turns out to be, the property seems to be in good hands with Jake Schreier directing after delivering an emotionally driven “Thunderbolts” installment, and after (*SPOILER ALERT*) Sadie Sink‘s Jean Grey introduction in “Brand New Day” gave that mutant heroine a solid new origin story ahead of her arrival in the new mainline “X-Men” reboot. There seems to be some hope from fandom that during the Marvel presentation at D23 Expo next week, the studio may end up confirming the “X-Men” cast, but we’ll be cautiously optimistic about that incoming announcement.
