Rumours have long been afloat about certain Hollywood stars possibly taking on new roles in Marvel Studios’ X-Men reboot. Celebrities eyeing superhero origin stories have fans to thanks in a handful of cases. In the past few weeks, The Umbrella Academy star Elliot Page and Euphoria actress Hunter Schafer’s names have hit the surface, with speculative talk suggesting that they’re being eyed to play super-powered being. Some reports have further fuelled the agenda, insisting that Page has even met with Marvel about a potential project.
X/Twitter user MyTimeToShineH known for pushing Marvel/DC scoops, though not always reliable, fuelled these conversations surrounding Elliot’s potential return to a superhero storyline and Hunter “being considered” to play the beloved shapeshifter Mystique.
This same pool of rumoured castings also contended that Sadie Sink may be front in line to play the new Jean Grey, with Jack Champion and Harris Dickinson as possible contenders for Cyclops’ role. Denzel Washington’s name was also dropped in the mix as Magneto, with Ayo Edebiri supposedly in line to play Storm.
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Hunter Schafer resumes Euphoria journey
With Euphoria Season 3’s production officially back on after a far too long hiatus and radio silence, Hunter Schafer is already confirmed to reprise her breakout role, Jules Vaughn.
Revealing what it was like be back on the set of the HBO series, Schafer told Entertainment Tonight at the Independent Spirit Awards that the Euphoria will always be extra-special for her, especially since it’s where she “learned to act and write,” and what “really introduced” her “to the film world.” In addition to teasing the ‘little homecoming,’ The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes star addressed fans wanting her to play Mystique in the X-Men reboot.
Hunter Schafer ready to play Mystique in the X-Men reboot
Confirming that she’d seen what all the buzz was about, Hunter said, “My dad texted me about that, yeah.”
Green-lighting the possibility from her end, she assured her fans that she was all game for the X-Men fan casting. “That would be cool,” she continued. “These fan casts come around every once in a while. It’s always very sweet and… Always for characters that I really like.”
As far as the most mainstream live-action interpretations of X-Men’s Mystique/Raven go, Rebecca Romijn portrayed her in the first three X-Men films, whereas Jennifer Lawrence’s version debuted in X-Men: First Class (2011).
X-Men reflecting the real world
Mystique has long been envisioned as a character crossing the boundaries of sexuality and gender construct. Although Marvel’s storylines have always been seen as a “a reflection of the world right outside of our window,” as Stan Lee reiterated in 2017.
Netizens haven’t particularly been fans of overtly diverse or political tones assumed by superhero narratives in recent times, and slammed them as “woke,” with the most negative undertones possible. Lee said it best back then, “The stories of heroism… have room for everyone, regardless of their race, gender, religion or colour of their skin. The only things we don’t have room for are hatred, intolerance and bigotry.”
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Mystique’s shape-shifting powers have endlessly fuelled conversations around gender fluidity (originally planned to be Nightcrawler’s father). While fans still continue to tussle over her potential gender fluidity, the character is canonically bisexual.
Trans actress’ passport gender was changed
Beyond the war of words over “woke” concepts between fans, Schafer is currently dealing with a real-life crisis of her own. The HBO teen drama’s starlet, a transgender woman, recently spoke out against the Donald Trump administration after her new passport changed her gender from female to male.
Her new passport was marked ‘M’ as she faced the repercussions of Trump’s Jan 20 executive order, which stated that the US government will only recognise a person’s biological sex at birth.
“I don’t go give a f— that they put an M on my passport. It doesn’t change really anything about me or my transness. However, it does make life a little harder,” she said during her outburst. “I just want to say trans people are beautiful. We are never going to stop existing. I’m never gonna stop being trans. A letter and a passport can’t change that. I don’t really have an answer on what to do about this, but I feel it was important to share this is real.”