Is Peter Claffey playing Beast in Marvel's X-Men film?

Peter Claffey, the Irish actor who stars as Ser Duncan the Tall in HBO's A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, is rumored to have been cast as Hank McCoy, aka Beast, in Marvel Studios' upcoming X-Men film. I love this casting. I think he's great, and I think he's a perfect fit for the part.

The outlet that broke the story says Claffey isn't just in contention for the role but has landed it.

Peter Claffey is rumored to have landed Beast after Charles Melton dropped out

Scooper Jeff Sneider first rumored Claffey for the role back in April. Before that, actor Charles Melton was linked to the part. Melton dropped out of the running to star as Kakashi Hatake in Destin Daniel Cretton's live action Naruto movie. He reportedly tried to make the scheduling work for both projects but couldn't.

Production on the new X-Men film is expected to begin in the UK sometime in early 2027.

For Beast, I think Claffey has the size, and he has that kind of delivery and that kindness. He's also an actor who is still building his resume. So being part of an ensemble film of mutants, where he's not the lead mutant, makes sense. It's a challenge, it's interesting, and it could set him up for a very nice payday. I think this is all positive.

Why Charles Melton never felt like the right Beast

We talked about the Melton possibility a lot on Hot Mic, and I never quite believed he was going to be cast. I kept saying, "This guy's a lead." He almost got nominated for an Oscar, so it felt odd for him to take Beast. It makes sense that he might have decided he didn't want to be part of an ensemble.

The point was also made in our discussion that Melton isn't the guy for Beast and would suit something else, since he's a good actor. When it comes to the look of Beast, though, Claffey came across as the better choice for the character.

Jeff Sneider broke the Claffey rumor in April

Jeff broke this back in April on Hot Mic. I reshared that April conversation because I saw some people claiming they had come up with it or that they had the break, and this has been around for a while. The person who posted the story originally credited us, so there was no problem there. Others running with it, though, were claiming it was their own breaking news.

To be fair, there was some fan casting of Claffey before Jeff ever mentioned it, and I respect that. But "fan casting versus actual sources connected to Marvel telling you are two different things."

Marvel is building an X-Men ensemble without leading with Wolverine

Either way, the feeling in our discussion was that Marvel is putting together a solid ensemble of strong up and coming actors, and doing it without leading with Wolverine first.

There was doubt in our discussion that Wolverine is going to be in the movie at all, along with the view that he shouldn't be. If he is, the suggestion was that it should be a post credits scene where you see the claws but don't know who is playing him.

The argument was that you don't need Wolverine to start this time. In the original X-Men movies, you needed his star power and needed to lead on his storyline, because the X-Men were known in geek culture but not yet in cinema culture. Those films were the first introduction.