While Avengers: Doomsday is the MCU’s next big event, many fans are already looking ahead to Marvel’s upcoming X-Men reboot. According to a report from Knight Edge Media, Peter Claffey has been cast as Beast in the 2028 X-Men film. Claffey is an Irish actor best known for his recent portrayal of Sir Duncan in HBO’s acclaimed A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
After a sports career as a professional rugby player, Claffey graduated from Bow Street Academy for Screen Acting in 2020. He made his professional stage debut in 2022, followed by several TV parts, including Joe Walsh in Bad Sisters. Charles Melton had reportedly also been in the running to play Beast, but dropped out to focus on playing Kakashi Hatake in the Naruto live-action movie.
The character Beast first appeared in X-Men #1 (1963), and is known for the contrast between his bestial appearance and impressive intellect. Kelsey Grammer previously played the mutant in X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men: Days of Future Past. Grammer will reprise the role in Avengers: Doomsday, which will presumably be his final appearance as the character. Nicholas Hoult played the younger version of Beast in the X-Men prequel films, where this genius had a more central role.
X-Men shares more casting news
Beyond Claffey’s casting as Beast, Knight Edge Media’s Caleb William also reported that Renate Reinsve (Backrooms, Sentimental Value, Fjord, The Worst Person in the World) met with Marvel about playing Moira MacTaggert. Given that the Oscar-nominated actress recently said in an interview that she wouldn’t fit in a Marvel movie, it remains to be seen whether she will take the role.
For those unfamiliar with Moira MacTaggert, she’s typically portrayed as a geneticist who works closely with mutants, but in more recent comics like House of X, she’s been recast as a mutant who can redo her life and reality itself each time she dies.
Who has been officially cast in the upcoming X-Men film so far?
The upcoming X-Men movie has quite a cast so far. The film features Christopher Abbott as Professor Charles Xavier, Sadie Sink as Jean Grey, Inde Navarrette as Rogue, Kit Connor as Cyclops, Samara Weaving as Emma Frost, Maya Boyd as Storm, Asa Germann as Angel, and Adam Driver as the main antagonist Mister Sinister. With all the new faces, the upcoming film will likely be a complete reset from the previous Fox-produced movies, building out the new MCU version of these characters. X-Men is currently scheduled for a May 5, 2028 theatrical release.
