Entertainment
Marvel Officially Set Up This 10/10 Storyline With Its X-Men Casting
Editor’s Note: The following article contains spoilers for Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
Marvel Studios is moving full steam ahead with its upcoming X-Men reboot, as three of the iconic mutant heroes have either entered or are set to enter the Marvel Cinematic Universe. First up is Jean Grey (Sadie Sink), who was introduced as an antagonist in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Next, Marvel announced that it had cast Samara Weaving as Emma Frost, the telepath better known as the White Queen. Now, a new report says that Heartstopper alum Kit Connor is the frontrunner for Cyclops. These casting choices hint that director Jake Schreier is looking to take inspiration from one of the most popular X-Men storylines of the modern era, Astonishing X-Men.
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Written by Joss Whedon and illustrated by the late John Cassaday, Astonishing X-Men was a return to form for the X-Men. It brought fan-favorite Kitty Pryde, aka Shadowcat, back into the fold. It saw the X-Men returning to wearing more traditional superhero outfits after Grant Morrison had them donning black leather for New X-Men. More importantly, the biggest shake-up saw Cyclops and Emma Frost leading the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning, effectively signaling a new era in X-Men comics. If Schreier is drawing from these comics, he could deliver a version of the X-Men that fans and newcomers have yet to see on the big screen.
Adapting ‘Astonishing X-Men’ Could Make Marvel’s X-Men Stand Out in One Key Way
What makes Astonishing X-Men such a standout among X-Men comics is how it manages to push the franchise forward while still staying true to its core concepts. The very first storyline, “Gifted,” features a “cure” that will strip mutants of their powers, raising debates around the halls and within the X-Men themselves as Beast contemplates taking the cure himself. It also introduces Ord, an alien warrior who created the cure as he fears a prophecy that one of the X-Men will destroy his homeworld. The fact that the opening arc managed to touch on the cosmic elements of classic X-Men stories like “The Dark Phoenix Saga” and the underlying metaphor of being feared for your differences that fuels the X-Men makes it a great read, and the perfect foundation for a new X-Men movie.
In casting Cyclops and Emma Frost, the X-Men reboot doesn’t just signal that it’s taking cues from Astonishing X-Men, but that it’s separating itself from 20th Century Fox’s take on the mutant heroes by shifting the focus to a different group of mutants. Most of the storylines in Fox’s X-Men movies tended to revolve around Wolverine, Magneto, or Charles Xavier; if Marvel Studios is taking those three off the board, it frees up Schreier to focus on other characters and remind people why they’re so iconic. Cyclops is a prime example of this, as X-Men ’97 has reminded fans why Xavier chose him to lead the X-Men.
The ‘X-Men’ Reboot Crew Might Revamp One Key Relationship
It’s no surprise that Astonishing X-Men might be one of Jake Schreier’s inspirations, as he and the rest of the crew on the X-Men reboot have expressed their love for the comics on multiple occasions. Perhaps the biggest fan is screenwriter Lee Sung Jin, who revealed that he was a massive fan of Gambit in addition to growing up with the X-Men:
“I’m such a huge fan of X-Men. My dad was in town for my daughter’s birthday recently. My mom and dad both were, and I told him the news about X-Men, and he was like, ‘That’s the good one, you know.’ I have such fond memories of me and my dad, Saturday morning, every morning, waking up, I think it was 9:00 or 10:00 a.m. central time, and we’d watch every single episode, read the comics, and I was a huge Gambit fan growing up, so the love is very strong.”
Lee’s X-Men fandom means he can offer a great solution to a major obstacle in the upcoming reboot: how Cyclops and Emma interact. Most fans know about the duo’s romantic relationship in the comics, but given that Samara Weaving is 12 years older than Kit Connor, they probably won’t see that relationship forming on screen. Whatever Lee, Schreier, and the rest of the crew do with the story, it’s clear that they understand what makes the X-Men tick, and why Astonishing X-Men is a perfect storyline to draw inspiration from.
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Spider-Man: Brand New Day
Specifications
- Release Date
- 2026-07-31
- Rating
- PG-13
- Genres
- Superhero (Genre), Action (Genre), Adventure (Genre)
- Runtime
- 145 Minutes
- Cast
- Tom Holland (Person), Zendaya (Person), Jacob Batalon (Person), Mark Ruffalo (Person), Jon Bernthal (Person), Marvin ‘Krondon’ Jones III (Person), Michael Mando (Person), Tramell Tillman (Person), Liza Colón-Zayas (Person), Sadie Sink (Person), Melanie Scrofano (Person)
- Director
- Destin Daniel Cretton (Person)
- Writers
- Chris McKenna (Person), Erik Sommers (Person), Steve Ditko (Person), Stan Lee (Person)
- Producers
- Amy Pascal (Person), Kevin Feige (Person), Rachel O’Connor (Person), Avi Arad (Person)
- Prequel(s)
- Spider-Man: Homecoming (Movie, Movies/TV), Spider-Man: Far From Home (Movie, Movies/TV), Spider-Man: No Way Home (Movie, Movies/TV)
- Franchise(s)
- Marvel Cinematic Universe (Franchise), Spider-Man (Franchise)
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