Beast and Iceman Reportedly Joining the MCU's X-Men Lineup Alongside Angel

Beast and Iceman are reportedly joining the X-Men lineup for the MCU's upcoming reboot, with casting for both said to be on the way. That comes on the heels of the news that Gen V actor Asa Germann has landed the role of Angel, which immediately raised the question of how many more X-Men members are still to be announced.

This latest update comes from industry insider Alex Perez over at The Cosmic Circus. He and Lizzie Hill have been running that editorial for quite some time, and as I always remind people, no scooper gets everything right, but they have established a track record and have been a pillar in the Marvel scoop community for a while. So take that as you will. Alex says Beast and Iceman are also in the MCU's X-Men lineup and that casting for both of them is on the way.

The Classic 1963 Lineup Theory Gets Reinforced

This is believable on a lot of levels, and credit where credit's due, industry insiders were scooping almost six months ago that the team lineup for the X-Men would be the OG five: Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast, Iceman, and Angel. That was the very first lineup from September 1963, and the cover for X-Men number one is a pretty memorable Marvel picture at this point for a lot of fans.

They would not add characters we know will be in the upcoming film, like Storm, until Giant-Size X-Men released over a decade later in 1975. So right off the bat, seeing some of the classic members like Cyclops and Jean Grey alongside Storm raised at least some question as to exactly which lineup they were going with. Now it seems as though the lineup we will be introduced to first will be the original classic lineup, just as those earlier scoops suggested.

Why Rogue and Storm Might Still Be Students, Not X-Men, at First

The extended detail seems to be that other mutants, like Rogue, will just be at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, still operating basically in a student capacity and not as official X-Men yet. That goes a long way in explaining Rogue and Storm being part of the mix but not quite being on the X-Men just yet.

I wouldn't assume that just these five stay on the team throughout the whole movie, or even right from the beginning. They may decide to do their own incarnation of the team, and it may be the classic five plus one or two characters. But I think more likely than not, the opportunity here is to use a page basically right out of the Avengers film, where they're going around and recruiting the team and approaching new members.

The Emma Frost and Hellfire Club Theory Explains Her Early Casting

As I've said in a previous theory video, that's the Emma Frost of it all, and that's why she's cast in the first movie. She may be vying for some of these exact same team members who are going to end up at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. She may be trying to pull them into early versions of the Hellfire Club instead.

In the comics, that club was meant to be basically the antithesis of what Xavier was trying to do with the gifted youngsters, a kind of paradox or parallel, and her students were actually referred to as Hellions. That's why introducing her in the first film makes sense to me, and I think one of the characters she may be going after is Jean Grey.

Jean Grey's Spider-Man Ending Feeds Into This

When we saw Jean Grey on the bus at the end of Spider-Man 4, a lot of us, myself included, immediately said in our theory videos and Easter egg breakdowns that she's headed to Westchester County, on her way to Xavier's school. That may be the case, that these five members are the five students they've galvanized right when the movie starts.

It could all be about trying to sway some of the other members, like Rogue and Storm, not to be swept up by Emma Frost, who offers a very different future for them if they're not in the right place. I think that theory is even further supported by what we saw of Jean Grey's origin story in Spider-Man 4. That's why it was so important to have her as a member of the story and see it from her point of view, because it shows how she may be impressionable to different ideologies than just turning the other cheek or fighting for justice. It could be the crux of the argument that introduces us to the X-Men and these two parallel schools.

Casting Could Be Announced Soon, Following Deadline's July Screen Tests

As far as hearing about these two being cast soon, reportedly according to Deadline, screen tests were already underway at the beginning of July, and we are way past that point now. Whoever they've narrowed in on at this point may be in negotiations for contracting, or they may still be working it out, but hearing about them sometime soon is presumable.

In fact, I think they're probably wrapping up a majority of the cast, which is why I feel pretty confident saying that, outside of maybe some cameos or a character introduced at the end or in a post-credit scene, we may be rounding out the X-Men team with Beast and Iceman, knowing Rogue and Storm are already in the mix, alongside Cyclops, Angel, Jean Grey, Professor Xavier, Mr. Sinister, and Emma Frost. That's a full lineup.

A Nearly Full Lineup, But Magneto's Status Is Unclear

Does that mean we won't see the likes of Magneto? I'm not quite sure about that. I think the chance for other villains to show up, as we've heard in some other scoops recently that will be covered separately, works, but they've definitely got some fish to fry already with William Stryker and what's going on with the pre-Sentinel program that's already underway.

You'd expect them to focus somewhat on that, as well as the fact that there are only so many X-Men they need to introduce in this first movie.

Multiple Sagas Ahead, and What That Means for Nightcrawler, Wolverine, and the Avengers

For anyone asking what about Nightcrawler, what about Wolverine, what about Colossus, I hear you. This is the first X-Men movie in what Kevin Feige has referred to as a multiple saga team, which means the X-Men, even though the next saga may be the mutant saga, will probably be at the forefront and center of a lot of sagas coming up.

That really begs the question of whether they keep the Avengers title as the main crossover movie event. I think there's still a chance that'll be the case, only because of what they've already invested in it. If you think about the legacy of Marvel movies, everyone will be asking as soon as Secret Wars is over when Avengers 7 and 8 are coming, which will be very odd if it's all about the X-Men, but there's still plenty of time to think about what that title may look like when we get there.

Characters like Gambit, they're all coming, just maybe not in this movie. Who is an absolute must for you in the X-Men lineup, and who do you want to see cast as Iceman and Beast?