Former Mr. Sinister Actor Addresses Adam Driver's X-Men Role & Marvel Future

Marvel Comics Published Oct 14, 2026, 5:45 PM EDT Sign in to your ScreenRant account EXCLUSIVE: The actor who nearly played Mister Sinister has addressed Adam Driver being cast as the X-Men villain in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Back when 20th Century Fox was a separate film studio and had the rights to the X-Men, Jon Hamm was lined up to portray Mister Sinister. Once Disney and Fox merged into one entity, that potential casting, along with everything else that was in the works for the man born as Nathaniel Essex, were tossed aside. Now Driver is set to play Sinister in the MCU’s X-Men reboot, which will mark the character’s live-action debut. Via MovieStillsDB In an interview with ScreenRant’s Adam Barnard, Hamm reflected on his “brief flirtation” with Mister Sinister, i.e. when it was planned for him to appear in The New Mutants. While that opportunity was “corporately synergized away somehow,” the actor is hopeful that he’ll be “contacted by the good people at Marvel” for a different role. He elaborated on his desire to join the MCU, as well as shared his excitement for this December's Avengers: Doomsday, with the following: I remain a massive Marvel Comics fan and have been for the majority of my life. So I know that there's something out there for me. I hope. But Robert Downey [Jr.] just keeps playing different characters. I don't know. Maybe if it's got a mask and it's made of iron he's the guy. We love what he does. I'm looking forward to, like most fans, seeing what what Doomsday looks like. Can't wait. Originally, the plan was for Hamm’s Sinister to appear in The New Mutants’ post-credits to set up a sequel, and Fox had approached the Mad Men alumnus about playing the character. However, in August 2020, director and co-writer Josh Boone shared that studio executives later told him that Sinister couldn’t be used anymore, so said scene was never filmed. Boone’s comment was preceded three months earlier by X-Men franchise producer and Dark Phoenix director Simon Kinberg sharing that Sinister was going to appear in the scrapped Gambit movie instead. Sinister had previously been teased in X-Men: Apocalypse’s post-credits scene, when mysterious men came to the ravaged Weapon X facility and placed vials of Wolverine’s blood in a briefcase labeled “Essex Corp.” This was later indirectly followed up on in Logan; although Essex Corp is never mentioned in the movie, its subsidiary Transigen used some of those blood samples to create Laura Kinney, a.k.a. X-23. Though Hamm’s Sinister never made it to the big screen, the character has made numerous appearances in animated TV shows and video games. Rearrange the movies into the correct US release order. No specific details for Driver’s version of Mister Sinister in the still-untitled MCU X-Men movie have been revealed yet, aside from the fact that he’ll go by the alias Nathaniel Millbury. Other members of the X-Men cast include Sadie Sink reprising Jean Grey, Christopher Abbott as Professor X, Inde Navarette as Rogue, Maya Boyd as Storm, Kit Connor as Cyclops, Samara Weaving as Emma Frost, and Asa Germann as Angel. Before that, characters of the “original” X-Men cast, as well as Channing Tatum’s Gambit, will clash with Downey’s Doctor Doom in Avengers: Doomsday. Directed by Jake Schreier, and written by Joanna Calo and Lee Sung Jin, the X-Men reboot opens in theaters on May 5, 2028. Hamm can currently be seen in the MGM+ series American Hostage, which releases new episodes on Sundays. Movie(s) X-Men (2000), X2, X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), X-Men: First Class (2011), The Wolverine (2013), X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), Deadpool (2016), X-Men: Apocalypse (2016), Logan (2017), Deadpool 2 (2018), Dark Phoenix (2019), The New Mutants, Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) TV Show(s) X-Men: Pryde of the X-Men, X-Men (1992), X-Men: Evolution (2000), Wolverine and the X-Men (2008), Marvel Anime: Wolverine, Marvel Anime: X-Men, Legion (2017), The Gifted (2017), X-Men '97 (2024) Video Game(s) X-Men: Children of the Atom (1994), Marvel Super Heroes (1995), X-Men vs. Street Fighter (1996), Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter (1997), Marvel vs. Capcom (1998), X-Men: Mutant Academy (2000), Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes (2000), X-Men: Mutant Academy 2 (2001), X-Men: Next Dimension (2002), Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds (2011), Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (2011), X-Men Legends (2005), X-Men Legends 2: Rise of Apocalypse (2005), X2: Wolverine's Revenge (2003), X-Men (1993), X-Men 2: Clone Wars (1995), X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse (1994) First Film X-Men (2000) Character(s) Professor X, Cyclops, Iceman, Beast, Angel, Phoenix, Wolverine, Gambit, Rogue, Storm, Jubilee, Morph, Nightcrawler, Havok, Banshee, Colossus, Magneto, Psylocke, Juggernaut, Cable, X-23 Comic Release Date 213035,212968