Casting for the Marvel Cinematic Universe reboot of the X-Men has been one of the biggest stories in Hollywood this year, and it’s not over yet. The first wave of X-Men cast members has been signed and made their debut at Disney’s 2026 D23 Expo. We know that Jean Grey (Sadie Sink), Cyclops (Kit Connor), Rogue (Inde Navarrette), Storm (Maya Boyd), and Angel (Asa Germann) are all classic members of the X-Men roster who are appearing in the new film, but what about some of the remaining classic characters?
One Marvel scooper dropped a casting rumor update when news broke that Gen V star Asa Germann is playing Warren Worthington III, aka Angel. That scooper claims that diehard X-Men fans can breathe easy: the original X-Men team will be fully intact for this MCU reboot.
According to scooper Alex P., Beast and Iceman are two characters that are going to appear in the MCU X-Men, even if their respective castings have not been announced. We’ve heard casting rumors for Beast since Marvel Studios jumped into the search, with names like Peter Claffey (A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms) and Charles Melton (Beef Season 2) being tossed around. There has been far less chatter about Bobby Drake/Iceman, so hearing that the character is being cast and will appear in the film is a big deal.
Iceman appeared in the original X-Men movie trilogy, played by actor Shawn Ashmore. Bobby was mostly a supporting character, and most of that was dramatic work as he pined for his romantic interest, Rogue (Anna Paquin). It wasn’t really Iceman in any traditional sense – but then, the Fox X-Men movies took a lot of liberties with the characters and lore, and Iceman was far from the worst. Bobby’s two best shining action moments are in X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men: Days of Future Past, and even those films never really delved deep enough into who Iceman is as a character, or why his powers rank him as an Omega-level mutant.
Based on Jean Grey’s debut in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, it’s clear that the MCU X-Men movie is taking the classic character lore and reinterpreting it within a modern context. For most of the X-Men characters, that’s not a problem: their backstories can easily be reinterpreted within a modern context. However, it gets much more complicated with Iceman.
Back in 2015, in the pages of All-New X-Men #40, Bobby Drake came out as being gay. It was a major retcon to the character, who had often been depicted as something of a playboy. Both comic creators and fans have embraced the revelation; it certainly has done nothing to diminish Iceman’s popularity – quite the contrary, in fact. Since being out, Iceman has better distinguished himself as a character, and his powers have evolved along with his character. From becoming living ice himself to taking on entire armies or other Omega-level characters on his own, Iceman is not to be trifled with.
The MCU could do well to lean into the fully updated version of Iceman, as he epitomizes everything this X-Men reboot is trying to be. All we need to know now is who they are eyeing for the role.
The X-Men reboot will be released in theaters on May 5, 2028.
