Rumors: Sadie Sink, Javier Bardem, and more might be up for roles in the MCU X-Men movie, hopefully coming along in 2027
When Disney acquired 21st Century Fox, it meant that Marvel Studios, which is set up at Disney, regained the rights to Marvel Comics characters they had previously loaned out to Fox, like the X-Men and the Fantastic Four. Almost six years have gone by since that acquisition deal was completed, but Marvel has taken their time working those regained characters into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Later this year (July 25th, to be exact), we’ll be meeting the MCU’s version of the Fantastic Four in The Fantastic Four: First Steps. A version of the X-Men character Professor Xavier appeared in the MCU movie Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (alongside a version of the Fantastic Four character Reed Richards), a version of X-Men’s Beast showed up in the end credits of The Marvels, and some of the Fox characters went on a multiverse-spanning adventure in Deadpool & Wolverine. Now, Marvel is ready to get their MCU X-Men movie rolling. In the middle of 2024, it was announced that Michael Lesslie (The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes) would be writing the film. Now, casting rumors are starting to emerge online, with one scooper hearing that Marvel and Disney are aiming to get the new X-Men movie into theatres sometime in 2027!
Most of the rumors we’ve heard have come from industry scooper Jeff Sneider, who has a subscription site called The InSneider and a podcast with John Rocha called The Hot Mic. Sneider’s sources told him, “X-Men will begin shooting next year for a 2027 release. That means official casting news likely coming in the next few months… along with a director announcement.” Sneider has also heard that Sadie Sink of Stranger Things is in the running to play Jean Grey, with Harris Dickinson of Babygirl the top choice for the role of Scott Summers / Cyclops and Julia Butters of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood a contender to play Kitty Pryde.
Sneider couldn’t confirm that this was connected to any specific casting, but he has also heard that Marvel had a promising meeting with Tom Glynn-Carney of House of the Dragon.
As for the film’s villain, we have a rumor from an X scooper called MyTimeToShineHello, who wrote, “Marvel is eyeing Javier Bardem to play Mr. Sinister in the MCU.” Sneider’s sources haven’t given him that information, but the idea makes sense to him. Marvel spent months negotiating to have Skyfall bad guy Javier Bardem play the villainous Galactus in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, but that ultimately didn’t work out and the role went to Ralph Ineson (The Witch) instead. So if Bardem was “the one that got away” on the Fantastic Four movie, why not try to get him into the X-Men movie?
As of right now, the only MCU movie officially scheduled for a 2027 release is Avengers: Secret Wars, which is set to reach theatres on May 7, 2027. So there’s plenty of room for Marvel to bring an X-Men movie to screens that year. Kevin Feige, the President of Marvel Studios, has previously said, “The whole story of Secret Wars really leads us into a new age of mutants and of the X-Men.”
We know that the discovery of adamantium, the metal that coats X-Men fan favorite character Wolverine’s bones, is at the center of Captain America: Brave New World, which is being released next week. That film’s director, Julius Onah, told Screen Rant, “Adamantium is not like Vibranium, which can absorb kinetic energy. Adamantium, as we know, will eventually be a part of Project X. It will eventually be a part the story of Wolverine. So Adamantium now becomes this resource that could change the world in a way that’s very different because Vibranium is something that is really under the purview of the Wakandans. This is why it becomes an amazing geopolitical football in our film. But also what’s so great about the MCU is it’s an opportunity to take things that are iconic from publishing and find a way to reimagine them for this universe in a way that could be really exciting. And because we haven’t had mutants in the past, because we haven’t had Adamantium, it became such a fun way to surprise audiences with a new sort of vision of what it could be. And I’m just still pinching myself that I get to have the movie that introduces Red Hulk, that introduces Adamantium, that introduces Serpent Society. It is fun for me as a geek, and I think it’s going to be a blast for all audiences when they go see this movie.“
Are you hoping to see X-Men in 2027, and would you like to see Sadie Sink, Harris Dickinson, Julia Butters, Tom Glynn-Carney, and/or Javier Bardem in the film? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
