Marvel Studios is striking while the iron is hot. Following a record-breaking Thursday to launch Spider-Man: Brand New Day, another of the studio’s most anticipated projects just got the first piece of casting news ahead of what could be the biggest Marvel franchise yet. Following little nuggets here and there of “enhanced individuals“, “mutations” and more, we’ve now officially got our first official casting for Charles Xavier’s mutants.
Samara Weaving has been chosen to play Emma Frost in Marvel Studios’ upcoming X-Men movie, according to Deadline. Director Jake Schreier and Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige reportedly settled on Weaving earlier this week following an extensive casting process that saw multiple actors considered and tested for the part. Marvel has not officially commented on the report.
The studio has been taking its time with the franchise ever since Disney acquired 20th Century Fox in 2019, despite the mutants remaining among the biggest characters Marvel has yet to properly unleash in its shared universe, but now they’re in a position to begin casting some of the brand’s most iconic characters. Weaving apparently won the role with an audition that proved “too hard to beat,” with Emma said to have been the subject of one of the movie’s most exhaustive casting searches.
Weaving is the latest actor to take on the role that was most notably played by January Jones in X-Men: First Class, while a version of Frost also appeared in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Weaving is on a tear right now following a huge year so far that’s included Ready or Not 2: Here I Come, Over Your Dead Body opposite Jason Segel, and Carolina Caroline. She is best known for projects including Ready or Not, The Babysitter, Scream VI, and Bill & Ted Face the Music.
Who Is Emma Frost?
Introduced in Marvel Comics in 1980, Emma Frost began as the formidable White Queen of the Hellfire Club before eventually becoming one of the X-Men’s most important members. She’s an exceptionally powerful telepath who can also transform her body into organic diamond, giving Marvel plenty to play with whenever the character makes her MCU debut.
Schreier, who previously directed Marvel’s Thunderbolts*, is overseeing the MCU reboot, with Beef creator Lee Sung Jin and The Bear co-creator Joanna Calo working on the screenplay. Weaving is the second actor cast as one of the X-Men’s core characters.
Marvel Studios’ X-Men does not yet have an official release date.
via Collider