Marvel’s X-Men Has Its Team — So Who the Hell Is Nathaniel Milbury?

Marvel Studios finally stopped making us guess who its X-Men are going to be.

During its D23 presentation, Marvel officially revealed the principal cast of the new X-Men movie, which is scheduled to hit theaters May 5, 2028. Thunderbolts* director Jake Schreier is directing, and the lineup gives us new versions of Professor X, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Storm, Rogue and Emma Frost. Marvel also revealed the man apparently making their lives miserable: Adam Driver as Nathaniel Milbury, better known as Mister Sinister.

Sadie Sink will play Jean Grey, Kit Connor is Scott Summers/Cyclops, Christopher Abbott is Charles Xavier, Samara Weaving is Emma Frost, Inde Navarrette is Rogue and Maya Boyd is Storm. Driver joined the announcement through a prerecorded video rather than appearing with the rest of the cast, and Marvel saved him for the final reveal.

That’s a lot of new X-Men to process at once, and I’m not going to pretend I walked away from the announcement with some deeply informed opinion about every casting choice on that list. A few of them mean something to me immediately. A few don’t move the needle much at all. One of them could have walked onto that stage wearing white and I probably would’ve just told Marvel to take my money.

SAMARA WEAVING AS EMMA FROST? WE’RE GOOD.

I am a huge Emma Frost fan. Huge enough that I named one of my kids after her, so I’m probably not approaching this particular casting choice with the detached professionalism expected from serious entertainment journalism.

Luckily, this is Cobra Kai Never Lies, so nobody has to pretend that was ever going to happen.

I’ve liked Samara Weaving since she showed up on Ash vs Evil Dead. That was before Ready or Not made her a much bigger name, and I’ve enjoyed watching her bounce between horror, comedy and characters who look like they could either save your life or make the final five minutes of it extremely uncomfortable.

Emma Frost needs exactly that kind of energy. She’s arrogant, funny, dangerous, brutally intelligent and occasionally far more compassionate than she wants anyone to know. She also has to be able to enter a room looking completely untouchable while making you believe she may already know every embarrassing thing you’ve ever thought.

So yes, Samara Weaving as Emma Frost works for me. Marvel didn’t have to do any convincing on that one.

INDE NAVARRETTE AS ROGUE? WE’LL SEE.

I just watched Inde Navarrette in Obsession, and I thought she was good. Now she’s Rogue, which is a much bigger test. Rogue is one of the most recognizable X-Men characters there is, and being good in one movie doesn’t automatically tell me she’s the right person for it.

Maybe she nails it. Maybe Obsession was the beginning of something and Marvel got in early. Or maybe this ends up looking like flash-in-the-pan stunt casting a few years from now.

Rogue needs personality, attitude and vulnerability, and whoever plays her has to make all of that work without turning her into a collection of mannerisms, an accent and a white streak in her hair. Navarrette was good in Obsession. That’s enough for me to give her a shot. It isn’t enough for me to call this casting a win yet.

ADAM DRIVER. ABOUT DAMN TIME.

Then there’s Adam Driver.

Driver has spent years being connected to giant franchise casting conversations, and Marvel finally found something interesting enough for him to do. During his prerecorded D23 appearance, he initially joked that he was playing Magneto before revealing Nathaniel Milbury, one of the identities associated with Mister Sinister.

That’s a much better choice.

We’ve already had plenty of Magneto, including two excellent actors playing different versions of him. Mister Sinister, on the other hand, spent years lurking around the edges of the Fox X-Men movies through references and teases without ever becoming the major live-action villain those setups seemed to promise.

Driver playing Sinister also gives him room to get weird. Nathaniel Essex shouldn’t feel like another brooding guy standing around in dark armor explaining why humanity has disappointed him. He’s an obsessive geneticist with an enormous ego, a flair for theatrical bullshit and a history tied directly into the Summers family and mutant genetics. There is a lot more for Driver to chew on there than another variation of the standard comic-book villain.

Fox kept pointing toward Mister Sinister and never got there. Marvel finally did, and casting Adam Driver makes me considerably more interested in seeing what they do with him.

PROFESSOR X HAS SOME WORK TO DO

Christopher Abbott is probably the casting where my existing reference point helps him the least. I know him from Wolf Man, a movie I thought was awful and still haven’t managed to finish.

That doesn’t mean Abbott was the problem, and it certainly doesn’t tell me whether he can play Charles Xavier. The roles are completely different, and Patrick Stewart left behind one hell of a shadow for anybody taking over Professor X.

So Abbott doesn’t get the instant goodwill Weaving does, but I’m not holding Wolf Man against him either. Xavier is his chance to give me a much better association.

SADIE SINK? LET HER LOOSE.

Sadie Sink is another one I’m already sold on. I loved her as Jean Grey, and now I want to see what happens when Marvel really lets her loose.

We already know who she’s playing, so I don’t need to run through Jean Grey’s entire history again. Sink already convinced me in the role. What I want now is for Marvel to give her enough to do that we can see just how far she can take it.

Between Sink and Samara Weaving, there are already two parts of this cast I’m completely onboard with. Adam Driver as Mister Sinister is long overdue. Navarrette was good in Obsession, but Rogue is still a much bigger test.

THE OTHERS HAVE TO MAKE ME CARE

Kit Connor as Cyclops and Maya Boyd as Storm don’t do much for me yet. I know who they are; I just don’t particularly care about either casting at this point, and I’m not going to manufacture enthusiasm because Marvel announced them at D23.

Cyclops especially needs somebody who can finally make audiences understand why Scott Summers is supposed to lead the X-Men. The movies have spent decades treating him like the guy Wolverine has to get around before talking to Jean. Comic-book Cyclops is disciplined, stubborn, tactical, occasionally insufferable and absolutely capable of taking charge when everything goes to hell. If Connor gives us that Scott Summers, I’ll be happy.

Storm has the same problem from a different direction. The previous movies never fully captured how imposing Ororo can be. She shouldn’t simply be the person who changes the weather when the fight gets difficult. Storm should feel like someone who could command the X-Men, rule a nation or scare the shit out of somebody without raising her voice. If Boyd gives us that, I’ll care.

THIS FINALLY FEELS LIKE MARVEL’S X-MEN

The most important thing about this announcement isn’t any single casting choice. Marvel has finally reached the point where these characters are no longer vague mutant references, cameos or surviving actors from the Fox movies wandering through the multiverse.

This is Marvel Studios putting its own X-Men together.

They have a Professor X, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Storm, Rogue and Emma Frost. They also have Mister Sinister instead of immediately rebuilding everything around Magneto, which is already one of the smartest choices here.

Some of these castings already work for me. Some don’t. Weaving and Sink are firmly in the first group, Driver has me curious as hell, Navarrette has given me one good performance to go on, and Connor and Boyd haven’t given me a reason to feel much of anything yet.

That’s fine. A casting announcement doesn’t have to make me excited about everybody. The movie does.

Samara Weaving already has a considerable head start. I’ve been a fan since Ash vs Evil Dead, Emma Frost means more to me than most Marvel characters, and putting those two things together feels almost suspiciously designed to make me happy.

Adam Driver as Mister Sinister took long enough.

Now bring on the X-Men.