Christopher Abbott Cast as Professor X in ‘X-Men’

Marvel is currently on stage presenting at D23 and has revealed some members of the X-Men including Professor X who will be played by Christopher Abbott.

D23 is currently being held at Anaheim, California which comes off the clutches of SDCC a couple weeks ago. It was surprising when nothing was revealed about the X-Men film they were developing at SDCC but it makes sense they were saving it for D23 where they would have more info to give out.

Among those is a few new castings announced including Kit Connor as Cyclops, Adam Driver as Sinister, Inde Navarette as Rogue and Christopher Abbott as Professor X. Abbott has been rumored for the role for about a week now. He reportedly won the role after a screentest, one of the runners-up was Task’s Tom Pelphrey.

Abbott has been in a range of things in his career but his career has taken off as of late. He played the villain in Poor Things, he was the lead of Wolf Man, he is set to play a major role in Netflix’s East of Eden adaptation as Florence Pugh’s character’s husband.

Also announced was the title and release date for the film. X-Men releases May 5th, 2028 Jake Schreier is set to direct with a script written by Lee Sung Jin and Joanna Calo who also wrote for Thunderbolts which Jake directed. Lee Sung Jin is the showrunner of Beef which Joanna Calo wrote for and Jake Schreier directed on.

He will be the third actor to play Charles Xavier / Professor X in live action following Patrick Stewart and James McAvoy. Abbott is 40 year old which puts him right in the middle of those two age-wise as Patrick was 59 when he first embarked on the role while McAvoy was 32. It does make sense they’re going for a relatively young take considering that Sadie Sink and Kit Connor who play Jean Grey and Cyclops respectively are quite young.

Professor X in the comics is roughly around Abbott’s age for most comic runs. Professor X is known for his signature bald-look and his leadership qualities.

It’s likely that Magneto, if he is in this film in any capacity or is in a future film will be cast around Abbott. There’s not many, if any comic book characters with a rivalry as deep and intense as Prof X and Magneto so it stands to reason Magneto’s actor will be in the same age-range and will be screen tested with Abbott. This was also the case for X-Men: First Class where McAvoy was cast first and he was a part of the audition process for all the Magneto actors.

It’s unclear at this stage if Abbott will appear earlier in Avengers: Secret Wars or if he will make his debut in the role in X-Men.

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