Sadie Sink has hinted at what she described as a “clever” plan to introduce X-Men into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, saying that she is being kept “a little bit separate” from the casting process as speculation grows over who will play Cyclops.
The Stranger Things star, 24, made her Marvel debut as Jean Grey in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, featuring alongside Tom Holland as Peter Parker, Zendaya as MJ, Jon Bernthal as the Punisher and Jacob Batalon as Ned Leeds.
Brand New Day, directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, is set four years after Spider-Man: No Way Home and follows Peter Parker as he continues fighting crime after Doctor Strange’s memory spell erases him from the lives of MJ, Ned, and the rest of the world, while his spider powers begin evolving beyond his control and a mysterious new villain emerges.
In a new interview, Sink said she wasn’t completely involved in the casting process as Marvel began folding X-Men into its wider cinematic universe.
“It’s a little bit separate. So I’m finding out through Jake,” she told Vanity Fair, referring to director Jake Schreier.
“There’s also so many online rumours but it’s coming together. I think the timing of it’s so exciting, and the way they planned it out is really clever just with introducing one of the mutants, a very important mutant through Spider-Man. I think a great cast is coming together and I think people are going to be really excited about it when it’s all announced.”
It was reported last week that Heartstopper actor Kit Connor was in the running for the role of Cyclops in the MCU’s first X-Men film. The reboot is in early development, with Jake Schreier attached to direct and casting now under way.
Sink did not confirm if Connor had been cast. “There’s always the rumours, and I just never know what’s official,” she told Vanity Fair.
Reports from last month stated that Ready or Not star Samara Weaving would be taking on the role of the mutant Emma Frost, first played by January Jones in X-Men: First Class in 2011.
The X-Men’s screen rights were originally sold to 20th Century Fox in the late 1990s when Marvel was in financial trouble, leading to Fox’s long-running X-Men franchise beginning with X-Men in 2000.
This changed in March 2019, when Disney completed its acquisition of 21st Century Fox, returning the rights to Marvel Studios and clearing the way for the mutants to be integrated into the MCU.
The first mutant introduction came in 2022 with a cameo by Patrick Stewart’s Charles Xavier in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which was followed by a brief appearance from Kelsey Grammer as Beast in The Marvels.
In 2024, Deadpool & Wolverine saw Hugh Jackman return as Wolverine alongside Ryan Reynolds’s Deadpool. Several other X-Men characters – James Marsden as Cyclops, Rebecca Romijn as Mystique, and Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler – are set to reprise their roles in Avengers: Doomsday.
Film critics have been raving about Sink’s performance in Brand New Day. The Independent’s Clarisse Loughrey described her as “excellent” in her four-star review of the film and admitted that she couldn’t say more about her role “without giving the game away”.
Brand New Day is showing in cinemas now.
