Marvel Studios D23 X-Men Reveal: Insiders Tease Four Mutants Onstage and a Surprising New Storm Name

Marvel Studios is holding its huge D23 presentation tonight, and according to both Daniel RPK and Jeff Sneider, the two most trusted industry insiders on this beat, we are getting an X-Men cast announcement alongside new looks at Avengers: Doomsday and Vision Quest.

This matters because fans have been waiting decades for the X-Men to properly enter the MCU, and tonight could finally deliver names, faces, or at least a logo tied to the reboot.

Daniel RPK and Jeff Sneider agree on the shape of tonight's Marvel Studios D23 slate

Daniel RPK and Jeff Sneider are, in my words, in lock step in their reporting about what is coming from D23 tonight. We should expect a new Doomsday trailer timed to ticket sales, an announcement and trailer for Vision Quest, and then the X-Men cast announcement.

Jeff Sneider says four X-Men could be introduced, including Sadie Sink

On the Hot Mic podcast, Jeff Sneider went a step further and said his expectation for tonight is that we will be introduced to four X-Men. One of those is Sadie Sink, who is already confirmed to be live on stage, alongside three new X-Men. If I had to guess, some of those could be actors already tied to the project by Hollywood trades, like Kit Connor and Samara Weaving.

A brand new name surfaces for Storm: Susie Bemba

Sneider also revealed that the same source who first told him about Kit Connor has now brought up a brand new name tied to Storm. However, this is also the source that denied Sadie Sink was playing Jean Grey, so Sneider told everyone to take it with a grain of salt. With that caveat in place, he is hearing that Susie Bemba, a French actress, is connected to the MCU's Storm.

Jaime Lawson's name keeps coming up because of her Ryan Coogler connection

The other name that has stayed at the forefront, even getting featured in a Forbes article earlier this week about the D23 presentation, is Jaime Lawson. The big reason her name has stuck around is that she worked with Ryan Coogler on Sinners, and Coogler is heavily rumored to be introducing Storm during Black Panther 3, reportedly with a hand in helping cast her. That connection is, in my opinion, a big part of why her name floated to the top and stayed there.

Why I take Jeff Sneider's scoops seriously despite the grain of salt warning

I want to point out that Jeff Sneider and the Hot Mic podcast crew have had spot on casting scoops before. He had Kit Connor's casting the day before the Hollywood trades broke it, he just got beat to the punch on publishing first. He is also the same person who nailed Sadie Sink playing Jean Grey in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and the same guy who reported Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom a full two months before Marvel Studios confirmed it at San Diego Comic-Con. I will admit I did not cover that Doctor Doom story at the time because I thought it sounded utterly ridiculous. Given that track record, even though Sneider warned everyone to take the Storm name with a grain of salt, if cast members are rolled out tonight and Susie Bemba is revealed as Storm, I would not be surprised.

A separate Twitter scoop names Christopher Abbott as the Professor X front runner

Earlier tonight, Caleb Williams, another scoopster on Twitter, claimed, "As of last week, Christopher Abbott was the front runner for Professor X." He added, "We'll see if he's announced tomorrow," which implies Professor X could be one of the four X-Men featured tonight.

Even a partial reveal with an X-Men logo would be enough for me

Even though reports say Marvel Studios is rushing to lock down casting, I believe that if they simply announce the X-Men and give us some cast members, especially a core figure like Xavier, that would more than qualify as a real cast announcement. I do not expect a title reveal. Maybe we get a logo or a title card, similar to how Black Panther 3 was unveiled with just that placeholder name and no specific title. The X-Men script is reportedly undergoing another revision, so they may still be working out the title, but that would not stop them from showing a logo alongside a couple of cast members. The movie is still years out and will likely start filming next year, so a logo plus some cast names would be more than enough to scratch the itch for fans who have been wondering why the X-Men reboot got nothing at San Diego Comic-Con, which only featured Ghost Rider and Black Panther.

Why Sneider's source calling the presentation "bleak" has me puzzled

One detail from Sneider that I cannot quite wrap my head around is that his source described the presentation for Vision Quest, Doomsday, and the X-Men as rather bleak, or kind of bleak. That is a strange word to use for a Marvel Studios presentation, which is usually the opposite, more like a rock show, full of energy and color. Bleak is cold, empty, and without hope, so I wonder if something was lost in translation there. I genuinely cannot picture the presentation itself being bleak. My best guess is that the word describes the tone of the content in these three projects rather than the show itself, since Doomsday, Vision Quest, and the X-Men reboot are all dealing with heavier subject matter than some of the MCU's lighter franchises. There are already signs from Spider-Man: Brand New Day pointing toward a society that labels mutants as others, much like in the comics, setting mutants on a path to prove they can coexist with humans. That context could be what Sneider's source meant by a dower or sour tone. I also do not expect Vision Quest to be a light and happy outing, since Vision appears to have a lot of trauma to work through along with other AIs that are part of him in the show.

I am genuinely hyped, but San Diego Comic-Con still felt underwhelming to me

I have to admit I am super hyped for any X-Men news tonight, since this is something MCU fans have been dreaming about for close to 20 years. That said, I felt the San Diego Comic-Con presentation, which I covered at the time, felt a little rushed at under 45 minutes, and compared to the reveal of Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom, it did not have quite the same fanfare, even if others described it as feeling like a rock show and loved it. My genuine belief is that Marvel Studios is transitioning D23 into their biggest annual announcement moment, and I would not be surprised if D23 becomes bigger than San Diego Comic-Con going forward. In my view, the lighter Comic-Con slate had less to do with Marvel not wanting to spoil Sadie Sink as Jean Grey a week before Spider-Man: Brand New Day hit theaters, and more to do with this shift toward D23 taking the spotlight.

Do you think Susie Bemba or Jaime Lawson is the more likely pick for Storm, and would a logo with a couple of cast names be enough of an X-Men reveal for you tonight?