Marvel confirmed this weekend that Kit Connor will be playing Cyclops in the newly announced X-Men reboot. News of Connor's casting actually broke before the weekend, and in a previous interview with MovieWeb at Fan EXPO Boston, X-23 actress Dafne Keen shared her thoughts on his casting.
"I think he's perfect," Keen said. "Kit is such a brilliant, funny, talented, charismatic young man, and he's just perfect. Yeah, I have nothing but wonderful things to say about him. He's such a sweet boy, and he's so incredibly talented. We worked together for years without knowing each other. He was just playing the voice of my soul, which is kind of crazy. We've never met him playing my soul...I think he's gonna kill it. It's gonna break."
Asked specifically what Connor will bring to the role of Scott Summers that we haven't seen before, Keen praised Connor's ability to simultaneously display "masculine strength and fragility."
"What's really wonderful about Kit is he brings me this kind of really amazing masculine strength and fragility at the same time," Keen said.
Keen actually has a bit of an unusual working relationship with Connor, with both having worked together on His Dark Materials. Keen played Lyra Belacqua, while Connor voiced Pantalaimon (Pan), Lyra's dæmon, essentially the physical manifestation of her soul. For much of the series, the two weren't physically acting together since Pan was a CGI character and Connor recorded his dialogue separately. However, they finally did share the screen together in Season 3.
Keen is also no stranger to the X-Men franchise herself, having made her debut as Laura/X-23 opposite Hugh Jackman's Wolverine in 2017's Logan. She later reprised the role in 2024's Deadpool & Wolverine, which officially brought her character into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. There have been reports that Keen is interesting in returning for the new X-Men movie, but so far no official announcement has been made.
Despite their unusual working relationship, it's clear Keen has full faith in Connor's ability to bring a fresh take on Scott Summers to the big screen. And given her own history with the X-Men franchise, she probably knows a thing or two about what it takes to step into the shoes of an iconic mutant.
Connor is best known for playing Nick Nelson in Netflix's Heartstopper, while his other credits include Warfare, The Wild Robot and Rocketman.
The X-Men Saga is expected to kick off in 2028, with Disney confirming the initial cast will star Sadie Sink as Jean Grey, Kit Connor as Cyclops, Christopher Abbott as Professor Charles Xavier, Samara Weaving as Emma Frost, Inde Navarrette as Rogue, Maya Boyd as Storm, and Adam Driver as Nathaniel Milbury (Mister Sinister).