EXCLUSIVE: After the news that Samara Weaving was in line for the Emma Frost role in upcoming X-Men, it now looks like Marvel Studios has found its Scott Summers as sources tell Deadline Kit Connor is the choice for the mutant Cyclops. Similar to the Weaving situation where director Jake Schreier and Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige met with a number of candidates, sources say the studio has ultimately landed on Connor last week as the latest actor to don the Cyclops visor.
Marvel and reps for Connor could not be reached for comment on the casting.
While James Bond has had everyone’s attention this summer, the most active casting process has been who will play the new team of Mutants. Following a number of meetings and auditions over the last couple months, sources say a small group of actors tested after the fourth of July holiday and after a lot of back and forth Marvel landed on Connor as the choice to play Summers.
Summers has been one of the cornerstones of the X-Men comics first appearing in a 1963 The X-Men comic from Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. The character has always been seen as the captain of the team of Mutants best known for the powerful beams of energy emitted from his eyes that he controls through a visor and various sunglasses.
The character has been played by two actors in the past, James Marsden, who would play him in three X-Men films in the 2000s and Tye Sheridan, who would play him in multiple X-Men films in the 2010s. (Marsden is already confirmed to reprise the role in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday pic bowing this December.)
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This latest development is sure to excite fans of the franchise, who have been begging for a new X-Men movie since Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox and its library in 2019. The X-Men universe was by far the most popular and profitable Marvel IP that Fox controlled, counting seven films and a successful Wolverine spinoff franchise that produced three more.
The new project gained momentum last spring when Schreier was tapped to direct, followed by Beef creator Lee Sung Jin and The Bear co-creator Joanna Calo hired to pen the script.
Connor’s star has been on the rise since his scene-stealing role in the Netflix series Hearstopper, recently reprising the role in a movie spin-off, Heartstopper Forever. Following that breakout role, he caught the eye of director Alex Garland, who quickly cast him in his war film Warfare for A24 as well as the upcoming video game adaptation Elden Ring.
He is repped by WME and Independent Talent Group.
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