While we may be only days away from the X-Men cast being officially unveiled, could the MCU's Professor X be revealed before then? Yesterday evening, The Hollywood Reporter revealed that Christopher Abbott (Wolf Man) and Tom Pelphrey (Iron Fist) are among those who have tested for the role of Charles Xavier.
The latter is out of the running, though no clear favourite for the X-Men's leader has emerged. Now, Knight Edge Media has named five actors who have auditioned for the reboot's Professor X.
The first few are familiar to us: Abbott, Pelphrey, and Bill Skarsgård (It: Welcome to Derry). However, two more contenders are now in the mix, with Will Poulter (The Bear) and Harris Dickinson (The King's Man) also said to have auditioned.
This comes after reports that one of the potential Professor X actors had previously starred in an MCU project; as a reminder, Poulter played Adam Warlock in 2023's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. With James Gunn unlikely to return to that franchise and no known plans in place to revisit the team, it seems Warlock will be a one-and-done for Poulter if he ends up playing Charles.
Daniel Richtman has backed up the report after previously reporting that Skarsgård and Pelphrey are out of the running. Abbott seems to be the current frontrunner, but Poulter or Dickinson (another unexpected possibility) could still beat him to the part.
Marvel Studios and filmmaker Jake Schreier are clearly seeking a younger Professor X, given that Abbott is 40, Poulter is 33, and Dickinson is 30. The MCU's Charles clearly won't be an old man, and he may not even be wheelchair-bound if the reboot takes inspiration from the more proactive version of the character seen in the X-Men's Krakoan Age.
In related news, @MyTimeToShineH is reporting that Logan and Deadpool & Wolverine star Dafne Keen is in talks to return as X-23. It's unclear whether that's for Avengers: Secret Wars, Deadpool 4, or X-Men.
So far, the cast of the X-Men reboot includes Kit Connor as Scott Summers, Sadie Sink as Jean Grey, and Samara Weaving as Emma Frost. Adam Driver is playing the movie's villain, and while the Magneto rumours have been debunked, it seems he's either Mister Sinister or Sebastian Shaw.
If Driver ends up playing the latter, we can likely expect a Chris Claremont-inspired tale that pits the X-Men against the Hellfire Club.
"They have come in and are working on a draft right now, which is really, really exciting to be able to put that group of people together again," Schreier previously said of X-Men writers Sonny Lee Sung Jin and Joanna Calo. "I also think just having the time to kind of sit back, and I’ve just been digging into so many of the old comics and the entire Claremont run."
"[I'm] going through stuff and really trying to think about what can we do well that feels new and feels different, and that hasn’t been done well before? Obviously, there’s such an incredible cinematic tradition of these comics, but what can we do? And how can we put our own spin on what that is?" the filmmaker added.
X-Men is currently expected to be released in theaters in 2028.