The New X-Men Cast Is Who I Thought It’d Be (But There's One Who Really Surprised Me)

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It’s finally official: after tons of reports, rumors and speculation, the cast of the new X-Men movie has been announced. Overall, it’s made up of folks I fully expected to see. However, there is one casting choice that really surprised me.

Alright, let’s get into this. At D23, the new cast of X-Men was brought out during the part of the event dedicated to upcoming Marvel movies and TV shows. Of course, it includes Sadie Sink, who will be reprising her role as Jean Grey after being introduced in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which premiered on the 2026 movie schedule a couple of weeks ago.

Alongside her will be Samara Weaving as Emma Frost and Kit Connor as Cyclops, both of whom we knew about.

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Now, getting into the new additions, Christopher Abbott will play Professor X, Adam Driver is set to portray Mr. Sinister, Maya Boyd will take on the role of Storm, and Inde Navarrette has been cast as Rogue.

To put that all into a nice list, here’s everything we know about who is in the new X-Men movie:

  • Sadie Sink as Jean Grey
  • Kit Connor as Cyclops
  • Samara Weaving as Emma Frost
  • Maya Boyd as Storm
  • Inde Navarrette as Rogue
  • Christopher Abbott as Professor X
  • Adam Driver as Mr. Sinister

Again, we anticipated a lot of this, thanks to rumors that have broken over the last few weeks and days. However, I was still surprised to see this ensemble and specifically Inde Navarrette's casting as Rogue. That’s because the Obsession star has been open about her love for Mystique, and it was speculated that she could play her in the MCU. During an interview with Variety, she discussed a meeting she had with X-Men’s director, Jake Schreier, and she also noted that:

I mean, Mystique has always been super cool.

So, that’s why I had Mystique on my mind. However, she’s actually taking on the role of Rogue, and I cannot wait to see her playing this iconic X-Men character.

Maya Boyd also came as a bit of a shock, because there were a few names being thrown around for Storm.

Interestingly, there was also one character left out of the presentation that surprised me. Along with various other rumors, it's been widely speculated that Charles Melton could play Beast. He was even asked about it recently. However, he was not announced, and neither were other X-Men staples like Magneto or Mystique.

It’s always possible the cast can grow, and at the moment, there’s still a lot we don’t know about this new iteration of X-Men. However, we finally have some names to attach to characters, which is incredibly exciting!

Before we see them in action, though, you can see the Fox X-Men stars return in Avengers: Doomsday on December 18. Then, it will be interesting to see how Marvel moves on with this new class of heroes on May 5, 2028.

Riley Utley
Weekend Editor

Riley Utley is the Weekend Editor at CinemaBlend. She has written for national publications as well as daily and alt-weekly newspapers in Spokane, Washington, Syracuse, New York and Charleston, South Carolina. She graduated with her master’s degree in arts journalism and communications from the Newhouse School at Syracuse University. Since joining the CB team she has covered numerous TV shows and movies -- including her personal favorite shows Ted Lasso and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. She also has followed and consistently written about everything from Taylor Swift to Fire Country, and she's enjoyed every second of it.

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