Since 2019, fans of the X-Men series have been waiting for another cinematic journey. The last installment, “Dark Phoenix,” released when Sony still held the reins, left much to be desired, while the 2020 release of “The New Mutants” was largely forgotten. However, excitement is stirring once again with the announcement of a new X-Men film set for 2028, directed by Jake Schreier and now part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. At last year’s Disney D23 event, a brand-new cast was unveiled, promising a fresh start for the beloved mutants, despite former franchise stars appearing in “Avengers: Doomsday.”

Fans already caught a glimpse of Sadie Sink as the mutant Jean Grey in the “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” film, released in July 2026, marking a triumphant return for Tom Holland in the iconic suit. On August 14, 2026, Marvel’s chief, Kevin Feige, revealed the full principal cast for the upcoming, yet unnamed, X-Men movie.

Returning as Jean Grey, Sadie Sink is set to lead a cast teeming with talent and fresh faces alike, including Christopher Abbott, Kit Connor, Inde Navarrette, Samara Weaving, Maya Boyd, and Adam Driver. Whether you’re spotting familiar faces or discovering new talent, we’re here to share why these actors look so familiar to audiences worldwide.

We’ve long known Sadie Sink would portray Jean Grey, an original member of the X-Men who wields formidable telekinetic and, later, telepathic abilities. Jean’s greatest hurdle lies in her profound power, transforming into Phoenix, which connects her to the Phoenix Force—a godlike embodiment of life and passion. Previously, Sink debuted this role in “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” but she may be recognizable from elsewhere.

Even those with a peripheral awareness of Sadie Sink would recognize her breakout role as Max Mayfield in Netflix’s mammoth hit “Stranger Things.” Debuting in the show’s second season, her character, Max, quickly became a household favorite, reigniting interest in Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” and showcasing Sink’s powerful performance until the series concluded in 2025. Beyond Hawkins, Sink starred in the Broadway play “John Proctor is the Villain,” earned acclaim in Darren Aronofsky’s film “The Whale,” explored horror in Netflix’s “Fear Street” trilogy, and featured prominently in Taylor Swift’s “All Too Well: The Short Film,” where she embodied Swift’s persona in the narrative tale accompanying the ten-minute song.

In previous X-Men films, James Marsden, Tim Pocock, and Tye Sheridan have played Scott Summers — also known as the powerful mutant Cyclops — and Marsden, for his part, is set to show up in “Avengers: Doomsday.” In the new X-Men film, though, Cyclops, husband of Jean Grey and possessor of super-powerful eye beams that require special glasses to properly deploy, will be played by Kit Connor of “Heartstopper” fame.

Connor led “Heartstopper,” the wildly popular coming-of-age series on Netflix based on Alice Oseman’s graphic novels and web comics, as Nick Nelson, a young man grappling with his sexuality while attending Truham Grammar School in the United Kingdom. Alongside Joe Locke as Charlie Spring, Connor will make you laugh and cry in equal measure as Charlie and Nick tentatively embark on a romantic relationship, beginning as friends coming from very different perspectives. (Interestingly, Locke is also a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe thanks to his turn as Billy Maximoff in “Agatha All Along.”) “Heartstopper” is a deeply earnest and honest show that explores mental health and other weighty issues, and Connor leads it beautifully; elsewhere, you’ve likely seen him in Alex Garland’s 2025 epic “Warfare” and the 2026 film “Heartstopper Forever,” or heard his voice as the daemon Pantalaimon in HBO’s adaptation of “His Dark Materials.”

As the founder and ostensible leader of the X-Men, the proverbial weight of the world always seems to rest on the shoulders of Professor X. A super-powered telepath who uses a wheelchair due to paraplegia, Professor X, whose full name is Charles Frances Xavier, is an incredibly wise father figure who helps train future generations of mutants … so who’s playing this incredibly important role and following in the footsteps of great actors like Patrick Stewart and James MacAvoy, the latter of whom played a younger version of the esteemed professor?

That would be Christopher Abbott, and anyone with even a passing familiarity with his work knows he’s more than up to the task. Abbott first rose to prominence on Lena Dunham’s subversive, brilliant HBO comedy “Girls,” where he plays Charlie, the beleaguered long-term boyfriend of all-time TV villainness Marnie Michaels (Allison Williams) who eventually goes off-grid and breaks bad. (If you haven’t watched the Season 5 episode “The Panic in Central Park,” for which Abbott returned after leaving the show in Season 2, do yourself a favor and watch it right now.) Besides “Girls,” Abbott, who made his film debut alongside MCU star Elizabeth Olsen in 2011’s “Martha Marcy May Marlene,” has appeared in movies like “Poor Things,” “Black Bear,” “First Man,” “The Testament of Ann Lee,” and Leigh Whannell’s “Wolf Man” reboot — as well as the first season of the TV anthology series “The Sinner” alongside Jessica Biel.

Newcomers are always welcome in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and it’s thrilling that Storm — who, true to her name, can control the weather and atmosphere — will be played by a brand-new face in the new X-Men movie. Longtime fans of the franchise likely think of Oscar winner Halle Berry when they think of Storm (or Alexandra Shipp, who plays a younger version of the character), but going forward, when you think Storm, think Maya Boyd.

Incredibly, the 2028 X-Men film will be Boyd’s big-screen debut, but clearly Jake Schreier knows she’s up to the challenge. If you’ve been lucky enough to catch any of Boyd’s stage work, you likely agree with Schreier. The Michigan native made her Broadway debut playing multiple small roles in the award-winning revival of “Merrily We Roll Along” with Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff, and Lindsay Mendez, and went on to play the title role of Juliet Capulet in the hit Max Martin jukebox musical “& Juliet.” In 2026, she took the role of Molly Cunningham in a Broadway revival of August Wilson’s play “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone,” and we absolutely can’t wait to see what Boyd brings to the role of Storm.

Inde Navarrette’s debut performance wasn’t Curry Barker’s massively popular 2025 movie “Obsession” — she previously appeared in “13 Reasons Why” and the CW superhero series “Superman & Lois” — but there’s no question that her turn as Nikki in “Obsession” put her on the map. When former YouTuber Barker’s low-budget indie horror film became one of the biggest sleeper hits of the year, Navarrette became one of the most in-demand young actresses around thanks to her stunning portrayal of Nikki, a young woman who finds herself in the unexpectedly dangerous crosshairs of Bear’s (Michael Johnston) affection to the point where he uses a magical object to wish that Nikki will love him forever. Unfortunately for both Bear and Nikki, this wish has some unexpected and extremely gruesome consequences … and Navarrette sells her character’s horrifying transformation beautifully.

Now, Navarrette will play Rogue, a mutant who can absorb anyone else’s qualities, memories, powers, or even life force with a simple touch — and a mutant that’s been played by Academy Award winner Anna Paquin in previous projects. Navarrette is still relatively new to the scene, but after “Obsession,” we’re supremely confident that her take on Rogue will be exceptional.

Within the world of Marvel Comics, Emma Frost is a complex and dynamic character who often shifts, from story to story, from hero to villain. A mutant with telepathic powers and, bizarrely, the ability to become an organic diamond (which is a benefit in that she’s basically indestructible and no longer needs food, water, and air when in that form), Emma has played both antagonist and ally during the X-Men franchise on both page and screen, and in live-action projects, she’s previously been played by Tahyna Tozzi and, most notably, “Mad Men” alum January Jones. Now, Australian actress Samara Weaving is set to take the role in the forthcoming X-Men movie.

The term “scream queen” gets thrown around a lot, but if there’s a contender for the top modern scream queen, Samara Weaving is definitely firmly in the running. After getting her start on soap operas down under, Weaving made a name for herself as a horror star thanks to “Ready or Not,” the cheeky horror comedy that casts her as a bride whose new family is, uh, a little intense that was directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett and got a sequel, “Ready or Not 2: Here I Come,” in 2026. Aside from that mini-franchise, Weaving has appeared on the small screen in “Nine Perfect Strangers,” “Hollywood,” and “Picnic at Hanging Rock” and on the big screen in projects like “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” “Bill & Ted Face the Music,” “Snake Eyes,” “Carolina Caroline,” and “Over Your Dead Body.”

The final casting announcement for the new X-Men film is probably its most exciting … in that it concerns the movie’s big bad villain Mister Sinister. The benefactor of the dangerous assassin group known as the Marauders in the comics, Mister Sinister was born Nathaniel Essex, a man fascinated by the work that Charles Darwin did on evolution who eventually becomes obsessed with studying mutants and trying to purposefully create a race of superhumans. After a chance meeting with another huge X-Men villain, Apocalypse (who was played by Oscar Isaac in the 2016 movie “X-Men: Apocalypse”), Nathaniel officially transforms into Mister Sinister thanks to Apocalypse’s Celestial technology, and even though he feels bizarrely protective over mutants like Cyclops and Jean Grey, he’s still definitively a villain.

Amazingly, Mister Sinister has never gotten a live-action depiction before … so it feels right that Marvel went big and booked acclaimed actor Adam Driver for the role. Driver, like Christopher Abbott, rose to prominence on Girls, albeit in a much larger role — as an on-again, off-again lover to Lena Dunham’s Hannah Horvath, Driver showed off his considerable acting chops as the temperamental and erratic Adam Sackler and earned a handful of Emmy nominations in the process — before becoming a bonafide Hollywood darling. After and during “Girls,” Driver appeared in films like “Lincoln,” “What If,” “Inside Llewyn Davis,” and “This Is Where I Leave You” in supporting roles before booking his first franchise as antagonist Kylo Ren in J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars sequel trilogy. You’ve likely also seen Driver in projects like “Midnight Special,” “Silence,” “Marriage Story,” “Megalopolis,” “Annette,” “BlacKkKlansman,” earning two Oscar nods in the process … and as the host of four (extremely good) episodes of “Saturday Night Live.” 

The new X-Men film hits theaters in 2028.