Kit Connor Just Landed Marvel’s Cyclops Role And X-Men Fans Are Losing Their Minds
The race to rebuild Marvel’s mutant team has been one of the most closely watched casting sagas of the year, with fans obsessively tracking every rumor about who would suit up as the next generation of X-Men. Names have come and gone from the rumor mill for months, but Marvel Studios has stayed tight lipped, letting the speculation build with each new report.
That mystery started clearing up over the past few weeks. ‘Thunderbolts’ director Jake Schreier is set to helm the superhero adventure, marking the first standalone ‘X-Men’ movie since Disney acquired 21st Century Fox in 2019. Samara Weaving was confirmed for the role of Emma Frost, and Sadie Sink has joined the cast as Jean Grey, giving the project real momentum heading into the fall.
Now the search for Scott Summers is over. Sources tell Deadline that Kit Connor is the choice for the mutant Cyclops, with the outlet reporting that director Jake Schreier and Marvel president Kevin Feige met with a number of candidates before ultimately landing on Connor last week, according to Deadline.
Connor, 22, rose to international fame as Nick Nelson in Netflix’s ‘Heartstopper.’ He has also appeared in ‘His Dark Materials,’ ‘Rocketman,’ and ‘Warfare,’ and voiced Brightbill in DreamWorks’ ‘The Wild Robot.’ The casting caps a fast career sprint that has taken him from an A24 war film to a video game adaptation and now the MCU within roughly two years.
Cyclops carries plenty of legacy for Connor to live up to. He becomes the third actor to play the X-Men’s leader after James Marsden, who starred in the original ‘X-Men’ saga and returns in ‘Avengers Doomsday,’ and Tye Sheridan, who played the character in ‘X-Men Apocalypse’ and ‘X-Men Dark Phoenix.’ Scott Summers has long been rumored as a possible fit for Connor, though many fans had previously pegged him for the Young Avenger Hulkling instead.
What makes the pick sting for the online rumor mill is how far outside the conversation Connor’s name actually was. Trackers had circulated names like Harris Dickinson, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Cooper Hoffman and Nicholas Alexander Chavez for Cyclops, yet Connor appeared on none of those lists, mirroring how Samara Weaving’s Emma Frost casting also came from completely outside the speculation. Cooper Hoffman had been rumored for the part at one point but publicly denied the claims.
With Weaving, Sink and now Connor locked in, the ‘X-Men’ reboot is quickly shaping into one of Marvel’s most anticipated projects, and all eyes are on Disney’s upcoming D23 presentation for more reveals. Do you buy Kit Connor as the MCU’s Scott Summers, or were you rooting for a different actor to put on the visor?
