Christopher Abbott has been tapped to play Charles Xavier aka Professor X in Marvel Studios‘ X-Men movie. Also joining the film’s are Adam Driver, Obsession breakout and Maya Boyd.
The castings and a release date of May 5, 2028, were unveiled Friday at Disney‘s D23 event in Anaheim.
Driver beamed in to announce that he’s playing Magneto, before pausing and adding, “No wait, Nathaniel Milbury.”
Navarette will play Rogue. And as Storm, it’s Boyd.
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Deadline broke the news in recent days that Samara Weaving will play Emma Frost and Kit Connor is aboard to play Cyclops. Those castings were also confirmed Friday.
Before the X-Men castings were announced, Marvel boss Kevin Feige introduced Sadie Sink on stage, who plays Jean Gray. “We’re here to talk about the X-Men.”
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While the next James Bond actor has had everyone’s attention, the most active casting process has been who will play the new team of Mutants in Marvel Studios’ pic. Director Jake Schreier and Marvel execs have been meeting and auditioning actors all summer, with a final round of tests taking place after the Fourth of July holiday.
Professor X is a telepathic mutant and the founder and leader of the X-Menwho first appeared in a 1963 comic. The character would famously be played by Patrick Stewart in the film franchise, starting in 2000, as well as by James McAvoy in the rebooted origin series in the 2010s. Stewart will be reprising the role in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday pic bowing in December.
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20th Century Fox Film Corp
This latest development is sure to excite fans of the franchise, who have been begging for a newmovie since Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox and its library in 2019. The X-Men universe was by far the most popular and profitable Marvel IP that Fox controlled, with seven films and a successful Wolverine spinoff franchise that produced three more.
The project gained momentum last spring when Schreier was tapped to direct the project, followed by Beef creator Lee Sung Jim and The Bear co-creator Joanna Calo being hired to pen the script.
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Abbott most recently was seen in The Testament of Ann Lee and next stars in Netflix’s East of Eden series with Florence Pugh. He is repped by WME and Entertainment 360.
At San Diego Comic-Con last month, Marvel announced that there’s a new Ghost Rider movie starring Ryan Gosling and directed by Shawn Levy and written by Jonathan Tropper for 2028. Also that David Jonsson is playing T’Challa’s grown son in Black Panther 3 set for December 2028.
