The Most Important X-Men Member Has Been Cast

2 min readNo, not Wolverine. Sorry to disappoint, bub. During the opening weekend for Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which introduced Sadie Sink as—spoilers!—the teen mutant Jean Grey, Marvel kept the X-Men train going with a Deadline report that Samara Weaving will play the icy fatale Emma Frost.As soon as the news hit, Marvel fans began asking who might portray the leader of the X-Men, Cyclops, who is famously involved in a decades-long love triangle between Jean and Emma. Well, fans don’t have to wait any longer. Deadline is now reporting again that Marvel Studios has found the next X-Man: Kit Connor, who starred in Netflix’s Heartstopper and in last year’s Warfare and The Wild Robot. He will also lead Elden Ring, A24’s first major tentpole based on the dark fantasy video game.On Thursday, Deadline published a report, citing sources, that Marvel Studios and director Jake Schreier have landed on Kit Connor for Cyclops. In case you’re fuzzy on X-Men lore, Cyclops is the guy who wears the sleek eye visor to control his power of optical lasers. He is also the leader of the X-Men, a master tactician and pilot entrusted by Professor Xavier to take point over the X-Men’s field operations.Next to Wolverine, Cyclops is without question one of the most important heroes to cast for Marvel’s imminent X-Men reboot. While the X-Men have a rotating ensemble like the Avengers, Cyclops is one of its mainstays, and it’s critical that the MCU get Cyclops “right” as much as it will have to get Storm and Wolverine right too.Cyclops may not be the most popular X-Men member nor does he have the coolest powers—though his eyewear will never not be sick—but he is central to the X-Men’s juiciest drama. He’s always at odds with Wolverine, especially over Jean Grey, whilst said relationship with Jean is often tested by Emma Frost. These four have been going at it in comics for decades, and it hasn’t ever gotten (that) old. That’s how messy the X-Men are, and the MCU is about to finally put that all on the big screen.As for Connor himself, he certainly looks like Scott Summers. He’s a talented up-and-coming actor who is young enough to be locked into a multi-picture franchise for the next decade or so. Although Cooper Hoffman was a popular front-runner for fans—and younger than Connor by one year—Marvel has ultimately landed on Connor for reasons we’ll eventually find out whenever X-Men actually hits theaters.Kit Connor takes on the visor from actors James Marsden, who first played the role in X-Men back in 2000, and Tye Sheridan, who played a younger version of Marsden’s Cyclops in the X-Men prequel films. This December, Marsden will return as Cyclops in Avengers: Doomsday, which fans expect will end the original X-Men universe for good to allow Marvel to reboot the franchise with a younger ensemble.