3 X-Men Heroes We Hope Make The Team's Final Lineup In The MCU's 2028 Reboot

Published Oct 3, 2026, 11:00 AM EDT

Nicholas Raymond is an author and journalist based out of Alabama, where he proudly roots for the Alabama Crimson Tide football team. A graduate of the University of Montevallo, he has a degree in mass communication with a concentration in journalism.

Marvel Studios already has a promising lineup for its first X-Men movie, but chances are, it's not the final roster. So far, a long list of iconic characters associated with the X-Men have been confirmed to be a part of the untitled 2028 MCU project. And based on the respective comic history of each character, most will be on Professor Charles Xavier's team of mutants.

Unless Marvel takes an unprecedented direction, Mister Sinister is poised to be either the villain or a character fated to become one. Emma Frost has counted herself as a member before, but she doesn't fit the mold of what the movie appears to be building. The rest, though, all make sense to fill the roles of heroes in the movie.

With Jean Grey, Cyclops, Rogue, Storm, and Angel on hand, Marvel has an excellent framework for a great X-Men team. Since the original lineup from 1962 was similarly made up of five characters, that could theoretically be the whole lineup, but given that more casting announcements are expected, not to mention the sheer size of the X-Men library, it's likely that the team boasts some unrevealed characters - but not many. The movie would risk an overstuffed cast if it adds too many X-Men heroes to the squad.

With that in mind, there's a limit to the number of fan-favorite characters the reboot can offer. Some of the most popular X-Men missing from the cast, such as Wolverine, Kitty Pryde, Gambit, and Cable feel better-suited for future sequels, whereas others deserve roster spots right away.

3 Iceman

Thanks to the MCU debut of Sadie Sink's Jean Grey in Spider-Man: Brand New Day and the casting of Kit Connor and Asa Germann as Cyclops and Angel, the MCU is on track to feature three of the five original team members in its first X-Men film. 20th Century Fox tried its hand at an X-Men origin story movie once before in X-Men: First Class, but there's never been a truly accurate take on the original team, complete with all five members. The MCU is on the right track thus far, but to check all the boxes, two more characters will need to be cast - one of which is Bobby Drake a.k.a. Iceman.

If certain X-Men casting rumors are true, then the MCU will indeed get its own Iceman in the 2028 film. The character has appeared in live-action in the past, but hasn't received nearly the same level of attention as many of his fellow X-Men icons. The MCU can correct that, and bring Bobby Drake to life as the wisecracking youngster, complete with his signature icesliding maneuvers from Marvel Comics.

2 Beast

The other original X-Man who continues to be absent from the cast is Hank McCoy a.k.a Beast. Beast has made several movie appearances to date, and has one more in the pipeline ahead of the 2028 film thanks to Kelsey Grammer's return to the role in Avengers: Doomsday. However, none of the X-Men movies have been accurate to the comic character, and since that includes Grammar's take on him, it's hard to imagine Doomsday changing that.

For that reason, 2028's X-Men movie presents Marvel with a great opportunity to finally get Beast right. Hoult's Beast in the X-Men prequels correctly portrayed Beast as a brilliant scientist - as opposed to a politician like Grammer's character - but one thing that neither attempted to do is depict him as a wacky, life-of-the-party character who hangs from walls and makes practical jokes on his teammates. Hopefully, these sides of the character will be represented in the MCU soon.

1 Colossus

Although not a member of the original X-Men team, Piotr Rasputin a.ka. Colossus is one character who could quite easily be reworked to fit into the cast in a way that doesn't require significant changes to his character arc. Unlike several of the other Bronze Age additions to the X-Men team, Colossus was approximately 18 years old when he joined in Giant-Size X-Men Annual #1. Because his story followed the earliest days of his superhero career, he would be a sensible roster pick for a movie about teenage or young adult X-Men heroes.

There's also the matter of what he'd bring to the table. Based on who else is in the X-Men cast, Colossus would easily be the strongest character on the team if he's to be included. Having a heavyweight like Colossus onboard would give the group some much-needed muscle, especially if they have to go up against top-tier threats such as Juggernaut and Blob.

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  Jean Grey

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  Rogue / Anna Marie

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  Scott Summers / Cyclops

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  Samara Weaving

  Emma Frost