Over the last few years, Ben Wang has quietly become one of Hollywood's brightest teenage prospects. Having racked up a slew of impressive turns in p
Over the last few years, Ben Wang has quietly become one of Hollywood’s brightest teenage prospects. Having racked up a slew of impressive turns in projects from American Born Chinese and Karate Kid: Legends to last year’s The Long Walk and low-key comedy gem Gail Daughtry And The Celebrity Sex Pass, the Chinese-born actor is about to head into bona fide blockbuster territory with Francis Lawrence’s forthcoming The Hunger Games: Sunrise On The Reaping. And, according to Deadline, something even more *ahem* Marvel-lous may be on his horizons.
Per Deadline, Wang is circling the role of Iceman — aka OG X-Man and Omega-level mutant Bobby Drake — in Jake Schreier’s upcoming MCU X-Men movie, currently slated to hit cinemas on May 5, 2028. While it’s also reported that several other actors, including The Fabelmans‘ Gabriel LaBelle, The Pitt‘s Jackson Kelly, and The Tender Bar‘s Rhenzy Feliz have also screen-tested for the role, it would appear that Wang is currently Marvel Studios’ frontrunner for the part and is currently in energetic talks to take on the quite literally coolest mutant’s part. If he does, he’ll be joining an increasingly tantalising X-Team that elsewhere includes Kit Connor as Cyclops, Samara Weaving as Emma Frost, Inde Navarrette as Rogue, Maya Boyd as Storm, Asa Germann as Angel, Sadie Sink as Jean Grey, and Christopher Abbott as their leader, Professor Charles Xavier. He would also, consequently, be joining an X-Team facing off against Adam Driver’s nefarious Nathaniel Milbury — aka Mister Sinister.
Set to be directed by Thunderbolts* filmmaker Schreier from a script by his Beef collaborator Lee Sung Jin, as well as Joanna Calo, Marvel Studios’ X-Men is set to be the studio’s first major event movie after the upcoming Multiverse Saga ending twofer of Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars. And with the rumour mill already spinning itself silly with talk of a certain knight of several — let’s say seven — kingdoms potentially in the mix to round out the OG X-Men team for Schreier’s movie as Beast, it looks like the hype for the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Age of Mutants is only going to keep growing as that May 5, 2028 release date grows ever closer. And if the current casting is anything to go by, consider us well and truly seated!
