With Disney having now snapped up 20th Century Fox, MCU fans are starting to get pretty excited about the X-Men, Deadpool and Fantastic Four – among others – entering the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, it’ll still be a few years yet before we see any of them.
After all, there’s still much to do in terms of planning out storylines and character arcs. Not to mention that with the recent delay to all of the studio’s Phase 4 movies, thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, it seems it’ll be even longer now until we get to witness the mutants and their associated characters rubbing shoulders with the likes of Thor and Captain Marvel.
But that hasn’t stopped casting rumors from running rampant and for a while now, we’ve heard that Marvel Studios might be hiring people of color for the roles of Erik Lehnsherr and Charles Xavier. Or, better known to most as Magneto and Professor X. And though Kevin Feige and co. are keeping quiet on who they may have in mind for the roles, a new report once again states that they’ll indeed be played by people of color.
This one hails from 4chan so, you know, take it with a grain of salt. But the leaker claims that both of the aforementioned characters will be played by people of color, “but not exclusively black.” Unfortunately, they stop short of naming any names, but folks like Giancarlo Esposito and even Denzel Washington have been thrown around in the past.
Of course, it’s always a bit controversial when the background of a well established comic book character is changed, and we don’t imagine the case will be any different when it comes to these two. After all, both Professor X and Magneto are quite iconic, each with tons of fans who’ve followed their stories for decades in the comic books, before they made the transition to film.
Still, if anyone can handle this delicately, it’s Marvel Studios. And given how important the X-Men are set to be for their cinematic universe, we have full faith that they’ll be able to nail the casting.