The MCU Reportedly Casts Emma Frost For ‘X-Men,’ Plus A Mystique Update

The Babysitter

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Spider-Man: Brand New Day spoilers ahead, but this week, we were just introduced to the first of the MCU’s X-Men, and now a second has arrived.

Deadline reports that none other than Samara Weaving has been cast as Emma Frost in the upcoming X-Men film. Despite no comment from Marvel, the report says the 34-year-old actress was reportedly chosen by director Jake Schreier and Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige for the part. Testing finished early in July, but Weaving was ultimately chosen to play the supervillain, an interesting pick for the first-ever X-Men movie in the MCU. The character was previously played by Mad Men’s January Jones in X-Men: First Class, and briefly showed up in X-Men Origins: Wolverine as a quick cameo.

Samara Weaving is an intriguing choice, as her biggest roles mostly include gore-filled horror/action comedies, from the Ready or Not series to Mayhem to Guns Akimbo to The Babysitter, so it’s certainly a question of how that might play into her portrayal of Frost in the MCU’s X-Men.

Emma Frost has some direct connections to the recent reveal of Sadie Sink as Jean Grey in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. In the comics, she’s a sometimes love interest to Scott Summers’ Cyclops, who, of course, is eternally romantically linked to Jean Grey. Cyclops has not yet been cast in the MCU, but rumors range from Cooper Hoffman to Drew Starkey as potential actors taking the role.

This is the first trade report of an actress cast as a specific X-Man, though there is further information on the villainess front as well. In a recent interview with Variety, Obsession breakout star Inde Navarrette confirms that she’s met with X-Men director Jake Schreier in the wake of that film’s explosive success and her highly-praised part as Nikki

“I thought what Jake brought to ‘Thunderbolts’ was what I used to love about Marvel. It was character-driven, and the whole time I just couldn’t stop gushing about how much I appreciated what he did with Marvel,” she said.

In terms of the part she would want to play, she says, “I mean, Mystique has always been super cool.” That role was previously played by Rebecca Romijn, who will reprise the part for Avengers: Doomsday, and before that, Jennifer Lawrence in the X-Men: First Class era, making this the third iteration of the character. Some have fan-cast Navarrette as Rogue, though the main fan pick for that role is Cailee Spaeny. That does not seem to have roots in any actual confirmed information, however.

Emma Frost being in X-Men might lend weight to the rumors of the main villain of the new film being Mister Sinister, given that she has been linked to that character in the comics in the past. That said, Marvel has shown they are willing to move past the comics to contort stories into what they want to see, as we just saw with a budding friendship between Spider-Man and Jean Grey, which is simply not an arc we’ve ever seen before.

If this does pan out with Samara Weaving, we’re up to two X-Men confirmed for the MCU, though we don’t know how many may make it to Secret Wars, where Sadie Sink’s Jean Grey will appear, and that’s meant to be the kick-off for that new team after a goodbye to the old FOX one in Doomsday. We’ll hopefully know more soon now that Brand New Day has come and gone, and promotion for other films begins in earnest.

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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.