X-Men Reboot Reportedly Loses Beast Actor Charles Melton Days Before D23

The actor reportedly set to play Beast in Marvel Studios' X-Men reboot has apparently dropped out of the film, just days before the studio's planned cast announcement at D23. From what I am hearing, that actor is Charles Melton, and this comes from two industry insiders in the scoop game, one of whom broke the story and another who jumped into the conversation while I was already putting this together.

Charles Melton reportedly exits the X-Men reboot as Beast

This afternoon, about two or three hours before I started working on this, Daniel RPK began dropping hints that Marvel Studios may be having issues with the X-Men casting. He said he was not sure the studio would actually do a cast announcement at D23 as everyone has been anticipating, writing that "it all depends on whether they can lock everyone in."

Then, within the last 30 minutes, Daniel RPK updated his report to say that Charles Melton, who had apparently joined the X-Men reboot as Hank McCoy, had now dropped out of the film and left the cast. That would leave Marvel Studios scrambling and possibly unable to deliver a full cast announcement at D23, since they would be missing one of the core members.

It did not take long for this to become the number one topic in the Marvel casting conversation, hitting subreddit threads and social media almost immediately.

Other insiders back up the Beast casting report

That spread led other industry insiders to weigh in. The anonymous Twitter scooper Apocalyptic Horseman, who has hit some of these castings on the head before, said he was hearing the same thing. Then Charles Murphy of Murphy's Multiverse weighed in too, saying he has not even been actively trying to scoop things lately but is hearing this exact same report, that Charles Melton has either passed on Beast or dropped out.

I do not think Melton passing on the role and Melton dropping out of the film necessarily mean two different things here, even though normally they would represent two separate parts of the process. We know Marvel Studios has been in negotiations trying to lock the main cast down in time for a D23 announcement this weekend, and as I have said every time I have covered this, those arrangements would have had to be made weeks or months ago. Whether it was during negotiations or simply a change of heart, Charles Melton was at some point in line to play Beast, and now he is not.

Melton was never officially confirmed by the Hollywood trades

Of the character castings that are 100 percent confirmed by the Hollywood trades so far, Charles Melton as Beast was never one of them. His name only came up from insiders like Jeff Sneider and others, and he has been the only name attached to the Beast role for the last month and a half that we have been covering casting rumors, but the trades themselves never stamped it. Still, the sources talking about him in this capacity have nailed things over the last two or three years, which is why I have to assume where there is smoke, there is fire.

Why an actor might walk away from Marvel Studios

We can only speculate on the reason at this point. I brought up in the opening that we have seen other big names, in front of and behind the camera, pass on Marvel Studios altogether, and not only because of any stigma around the superhero genre. The machine that is Marvel under the Disney banner comes with characteristics that are not an ideal working environment for every creative, and for actors, even though most have praised Marvel as a welcoming, collaborative place to work, the restraints are real.

Those restraints include getting typecast into an X-Men role and then being locked into a three, five, or even eight-picture deal, where Marvel Studios can call and say they need you next year for X-Men: Dark Phoenix or X-Men: Age of Apocalypse, taking a year out of your life on contract and locking you out of other projects. For most of us this would be a dream come true, but who knows what Charles Melton's career aspirations are, or whether he felt the X-Men commitment might stand in the way of advancing elsewhere. That could make it a hard decision, but still one he chose to make.

Melton's age stood out from the rest of the young cast

Marvel has been casting most of the core X-Men in their young 20s. Samara Weaving is 34 or 32, Sadie Sink is 24, and Kit Connor is 22. Charles Melton is 35, making him the oldest name that has come up for a core X-Men role outside of Adam Driver. That said, Beast has always come off as a bit older in past portrayals, and looking at Kelsey Grammer's version of the character, 35 seems young by comparison.

Whether Melton ever addresses this in a future interview, or whether more details come out down the road, remains to be seen. For now this is being discussed casually online among industry insiders, and Marvel Studios will presumably move forward with a different actor.

Why I still expect Marvel Studios to reveal its X-Men cast at D23

My biggest takeaway is that there is no shortage of actors who would love to play Hank McCoy in the MCU. Marvel Studios surely has a list, including at least one other person who screen tested or someone they already have in mind, who will be thrilled that a role they lost out on has become available again. This will just become one of those near misses in Marvel history, the one where Charles Melton could have played Beast.

I do not believe Marvel Studios is weighing whether to announce the X-Men this weekend based on contract negotiations happening four or five days before the actual presentation. Whatever cast they have, they will announce, whether or not the actor playing Beast is part of that lineup, alongside confirmed names like Samara Weaving and Kit Connor and presumably Sadie Sink. Variety, Deadline, and Hollywood Reporter have all confirmed major screen tests happened in early July, and screen testing is the end of the process, not the beginning, which tells me Marvel has been at this for months. I do not think one or two actors dropping out of contract derails that. It will be next man up, and if Marvel announced tomorrow that the Beast role was open again, they would have a thousand actors lined up before lunch.

Personally, I do not know Charles Melton's work, and the same goes for Kit Connor and some of the other younger names, maybe a sign I am getting older myself. I am familiar with Samara Weaving's work and think she will be an awesome Emma Frost, and I thought Sadie Sink absolutely killed it as Jean Grey. I think the X-Men will be just fine.

Do you think Marvel Studios still delivers a full X-Men cast announcement at D23 even without a confirmed Beast?