Marvel Studios announced the main cast of the long-awaited X-Men reboot at D23 last month, and the lineup included a couple of surprising names.
Though Adam Driver had been rumored to be in line to play the movie's villain, we initially heard that he'd be playing Magneto. The Star Wars sequel trilogy star was introduced as Nathan Milbury - the name Dr. Nathaniel Essex took shortly after allowing himself to be transformed into Mr. Sinister by Apocalypse.
Sinister has been a thorn in the X-Men's side for many years in the comics, but never appeared in any of the 20th Century Fox movies (X-Men: Apocalypse's post-credits scene introduced EssexCorp, but never went anywhere).
Rumor has it that Driver's Milbury will have ties to Scott Summers (Kit Connor) in this movie, which may indicate that the main plotline will revolve around the villain's attempt to harvest Scott and Jean Grey's (Sadie Sink) DNA to create the "ultimate mutant weapon."
It might be a little early to introduce Madelyne Pryor (an evil clone of Jean), but the groundwork could be laid for major Sinister-related storylines based on "Mutant Massacre", "Inferno", or "X-Cutioner's Song."
Sinister becoming a primary villain in Marvel Studios' Mutant Saga wouldn't be a major surprise, but MTTSH believes that the character is set to feature in "multiple MCU projects."
Will this extend to the small screen? We have heard that Marvel is planning at least two mutant-related Disney+ shows that will tie into the main cinematic saga, so it's a definite possibility.
The rest of the officially announced cast includes Christopher Abbott as Professor Charles Xavier, Samara Weaving as Emma Frost, and Maya Boyd as Storm.
We are expecting a few more additions (Beast and Magneto, at the very least), but it's looking like the rumor that the core team will consist of the OG comic book crew (Cyclops, Jean, Beast, Ice-Man, and Angel) may not have been accurate.
Sonny Lee Sung Jin (Beef) and Joanna Calo (The Bear) recently came aboard to write a new draft of Michael Lesslie's script.
Kevin Feige teased Marvel's plans for the X-Men shortly after SDCC.
"Acquiring the X-Men rights isn't just about... for example, Wolverine is an outstanding character, and we were able to team him up with Deadpool, which is great. But the X-Men are far more than just Wolverine, far more than the original team; fundamentally, it's a universe, a multi-stage saga. Much of that is what we're working towards."
"We’re constantly changing, constantly evolving, but having some guidance helps us act more purposefully, especially with X-Men—it’s already had 10 movies, some very, very good, some I think haven’t lived up to expectations—how do we plan the 'mutant saga' in a very grand way?"
"That being said, we have many more characters to explore in the future—the schedule is already booked until 2042, especially the X-Men," Feige added. "The X-Men have many unexplored characters from the Asia-Pacific region, particularly China, which we're very eager to explore. That's why I'm excited about the X-Men: we can show the world different types of heroes."