EXCLUSIVE: While there was no mention of X-Men in Comic-Con’s Hall H this past weekend, Marvel Studios seems to be getting closer to forming its team of Mutants. Sources tell Deadline that Samara Weaving is the choice to play Emma Frost in the upcoming X-Men movie. After meeting with a number of candidates, director Jake Schreier and Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige landed on Weaving earlier this week to tackle the role.
Marvel had no comment on the casting.
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While James Bond has had everyone’s attention this summer, the most active casting process has been who will play the new team of Mutants. While Schreier and Marvel execs have been meeting and auditioning actors for a number of roles, with the Frost character appearing to elicit the most thorough search among the new cast.
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The final list of actors tested for the role right after July 4th. At the end of the day, Weaving’s audition was too hard to beat.
Frost is a telepathic Mutant who first showed up in X-Men comics in the 1980s and has evolved over the years, going from supervillain to a key member of the X-Men. On the film side, she most recently was played by January Jones in 2011’s X-Men: First Class.
This latest development is sure to excite fans of the franchise who have been begging for a new X-Men movie since Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox and its library in 2019. The X-Men universe was by far the most popular and profitable Marvel IP that Fox controlled, counting seven films and a successful Wolverine spinoff franchise that produced three more.
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The new project gained momentum last spring when Schreier was tapped to direct, followed by Beef creator Lee Sung Jin and The Bear co-creator Joanna Calo hired to pen the script.
Weaving already is having herself a big 2026. In March, she led Ready or Not 2: Here I Come, the sequel to the 2019 hit horror-comedy Ready or Not, which saw her step back into the role of fierce protagonist Grace MacCaullay. The sequel achieved an audience approval rating of 90%, a rare feat for a horror/thriller genre film, and grossed three times its production budget within a single day of its May 5 digital release, climbing to the No. 1 spot on Hulu and ranking high globally on Disney+.
She followed with IFC’s Over Your Dead Body, winner of a SXSW Audience Award, which she co-led opposite Jason Segel.
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In June, Sam starred in the romantic crime thriller Carolina Caroline, which was named a NYT Critics’ Pick and sits at 90% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes .
Weaving is repped by CAA and 111 Media.
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As long as she doesn’t scream in the terrible way she screams, I’m down.
Samara’s Scream is iconic.
Can confirm, Australians are good screamers.
Nice! Samara is a great choice for this role!
Interesting that we’re hearing about Emma Frost’s casting before any of the other classic X-Men characters, but I’ll take what I can get!
Jean Grey is already set and in theatres now
Hopefully as Cyclops love interest
I agree. Don’t give us Jean and Scott. Also teacher Wolverine no young Wolverine.
I’m glad that Marvel seems to be going after talented actors for the X-Men cast. I’m curious as to how much time Emma will spend as a villain (if any at all) before going down a more heroic path? If she begins as a villain, then there’s a strong chance that we’ll be getting a third live-action attempt at The Phoenix Saga, as Emma was a major player in that storyline. Perhaps the Hellfire Club will be the villains of the first film. Marvel could also be going down the Grant Morrison ‘New X-Men ‘ route. Or maybe Emma’s Massachusetts school and her Hellions kids will be a rival school to Xavier’s (with the X-Men in place of The New Mutants), similarly to how the Brotherhood kids were in the ‘X-Men: Evolution’ cartoon. With Emma cast in the film, there are a lot of interesting directions that they could go in. Personally, I think an X-Men vs Hellions film could be very interesting.
They seriously need to start with the first class xmen before anything else, emma frost is a relatevly new addition to the xmen roster in comparison to the rest of the actual Xmen, im hoping they keep her as a villian with her hellions or hellfure club, as its the best place for her, currently the past decade she has been cyclops lover, which shouldnt happen due jean grey and scott being young adults starting the movie franchise, alongside beast, angel and iceman, maybe add in storm and polaris..
Have gambit and rogue as bad guys, atleast for the first few movies, gambit with maruders/sinister, and rogue with mystique/brotherhood, having factions especially evil mutant ones is vital, cant have another mystique/JLaw freedom fighter as the good guy in every movie, like the foXmen did
Ew no. It’s going to be Evolution. Rogue will be a teen and NO Gambit. Also why Polaris? No they’ll use the twins either reboot Scarlett and Quicksilver or Speed and Wiccan. Cyclops x Emma is endgame she was perfect unlike Jean. Only writer to understand Jean and writer her perfect was Grant Morrison
They seem to be doing Evolution. They should bring the cartoon back. That and Wolverine And The X-Men.
Yes also Avengers EMH, Spider-Man TAS, Fantastic 4 WGH, and Next Avengers. Also they need to make a Spawn HBO level adaption of Ennis Punisher MAX 1 to 1 that 90s animation.
Personally, I’ve never really concidered Emmma to not be a villain.
Great actress. Glad to see shes landing bigger roles. This ones perfect for her.
Great hire by Marvel.
She plays ambiguous hero/villain characters really well, so is a perfect fit for this character.
Wow this is like Jason Momoa with Lobo. If they give her good material to work with. Much as I am fond of First Class the characterization of Emma Frost in that movie was poor.
“the characterization of Emma Frost in that movie was poor.”
You can say that again. I hope MCU Emma does the character justice.
JMO as a comic fan her relationship with Cyclops was far better IYKYK.