Adam Driver finally said yes to Marvel, and X-Men is the reason

Kevin Feige has spent years asking Adam Driver to join the Marvel universe, and Driver has spent years politely declining. The answer changed for Jake Schreier’s X-Men, where Driver plays the geneticist villain Mister Sinister, and on Jimmy Kimmel Live the actor explained what tipped him over.

Part of it goes back to childhood. Driver told Kimmel he and his cousin Tony used to act out the comics, with Tony as Sabretooth and Driver as Wolverine. The rest, he said, was the package: the team, the script and the timing.

It was really X-Men and Jake Schreier, who’s the director, his idea for it, and that it’s Kevin Feige.

Adam Driver, on Jimmy Kimmel Live

That fits the story Feige himself has told. The Marvel Studios chief has joked that calling Driver over video with a role offer had become a tradition, one that usually ended with the actor taking a few days and then saying no. Driver’s casting was finally announced at D23 in August.

He did not pretend to be relaxed about it. A film this size gets a huge audience, he noted, which means any weak performance gets one too, and as a lifelong fan of the mutants he would rather not be the one who spoils them.

The new team is mostly young: Sadie Sink is Jean Grey, Kit Connor is Cyclops, Inde Navarrette is Rogue, Maya Boyd is Storm and Asa Germann is Angel, with Samara Weaving as Emma Frost and Christopher Abbott as Professor X. Schreier, who directed Thunderbolts*, works from a script by Beef creator Lee Sung Jin and The Bear showrunner Joanna Calo. The film is dated for May 5, 2028.

Before any of that, Driver is busy with very different villains and heroes. He has Paper Tiger in theaters on November 13 and then Michael Mann’s Heat 2, where he plays the main antagonist.

Reported by Deadline. Compiled with AI tools.