Though the trades have yet to confirm the casting, several reliable scoopers believe that Adam Driver has joined the cast of Marvel Studios' X-Men reboot. There are conflicting reports about which character he'll be playing, however.
We first heard that Driver had been cast as Magneto from MTTSH, before former Nexus Point News reporter @ApocHorseman claimed that the Star Wars actor was actually set to play Mr. Sinister. Now, NPN is reporting that Driver will play another classic X-Men villain.
According to the site, Driver will take on the role of William Stryker.
In the comics, Stryker was a former army sergeant and a devout Christian minister who became an anti-mutant activist. The character made several appearances in Fox's X-Men movies, with Brian Cox taking on the role in X2 (2003), Danny Huston in X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), and Josh Helman in X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) and X-Men: Apocalypse (2016).
It is somewhat surprising that Marvel is planning to revisit the character in the MCU, but Stryker is not expected to be the reboot's only antagonist.
NPN has also heard that Tramell Tillman will reprise his Spider-Man: Brand New Day role as DODC head William Metzger - another staunch mutant hater who is believed to be hunting Sadie Sink's character (believed to be Jean Grey) in BND.
Though the main focus of the X-Men reboot expected to be on the core team from the comics (Cyke, Jean, Ice-Man, Beast and Angel), another recent rumor claimed that the likes of Emma Frost, Rogue, and Storm will also appear.
Hunter Schafer's (Euphoria, Cuckoo) name continues to be brought up for Mystique, as does Cynthia Erivo's (Wicked For Good) for Storm. More recent rumors have mentioned the likes of Odessa A’zion (I Love LA, Marty Supreme) and Inde Navarrette (Obsession) for Rogue and Wagner Moura (The Secret Agent, Civil War) for Mr. Sinister.
X-Men is not expected to begin filming until next year, but we have heard that pre-production will likely get underway before the end of 2026, so the studio might well be stepping up its efforts to get the ensemble cast in place.
Casting is definitely underway at this stage, and while Marvel hasn't made any offers just yet (as far as we know), expect the trades to begin sharing shortlists fairly soon.
Could we see some of the next generation of mutants in the MCU before the X-Men reboot? @Cryptic4KQual recently claimed that Avengers: Secret Wars will feature "new mutants different from the Doomsday cast."
Thunderbolts* director Jake Schreier will helm the project, and scribes Sonny Lee Sung Jin (Beef) and Joanna Calo (The Bear) recently came aboard to write a new draft of Michael Lesslie's script.
During a recent interview with Collider, Kevin Feige confirmed that the reboot will be "youth-oriented."
"Jake’s an incredibly smart guy, and he’s an incredibly talented filmmaker. We had a great experience with him on Thunderbolts, and if you saw that movie, what he did with those character interactions—he also has his pulse on, shall we say, a younger demographic... because X-Men, as it was in the comics, will be a very youth-oriented, focused and cast movie."