Asa Germann auditioned to play Cyclops in Marvel Studios’ X-Men. He did not get it. Kit Connor did. Marvel liked him enough anyway that it turned around and offered him Warren Worthington III instead, and the Gen V star will now play Angel in the film hitting theaters May 5, 2028.
Marvel declined to comment on the casting.
Three Of The Original Five Are Now Cast
Angel’s arrival changes the shape of the roster. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby introduced five mutants in X-Men #1 in 1963: Cyclops, Jean Grey, Angel, Beast and Iceman. Marvel has now cast three of them. Connor is Scott Summers, Sadie Sink is Jean Grey after her debut in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and Germann is Warren Worthington III.
Beast and Iceman are the two still missing, and Kevin Feige said from the D23 stage last month that the group he introduced was only the first wave of casting. If both land, the film opens with the entire founding team on screen, which no previous X-Men movie has done.
The rest of the cast announced so far is Christopher Abbott as Professor Charles Xavier, Samara Weaving as Emma Frost, Inde Navarrette as Rogue, Maya Boyd as Storm and Adam Driver as Nathaniel Milbury, the name Marvel used on stage for the character comic readers know as Nathaniel Essex, better known as Mister Sinister.
A Character Two Movies Have Already Wasted
Angel has reached the big screen twice and been given very little to do either time. Ben Foster played the adult Warren in 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand, with Cayden Boyd as a younger version in the opening flashback, and the character mostly serves as a walking argument about the mutant cure. Ben Hardy played a younger version in 2016’s X-Men: Apocalypse, becoming Archangel and then spending the back half of the film as one of four henchmen.
The comics give him considerably more room. Warren is a wealthy young man with feathered wings, and one of the defining runs of his history has Apocalypse maiming him and replacing those wings with metal ones that fire their feathers as projectiles. That version debuted in X-Factor #24 in January 1988. It is one of the nastiest body horror turns in mainstream X-Men comics and no film has touched it.
Who Asa Germann Is
Germann, 28, broke out as Sam Riordan in Gen V, the Prime Video spinoff of The Boys, playing a near invulnerable student at Godolkin University whose storyline ran through mental illness, manipulation and a turn against his own friends. He carried the role into the fourth season of The Boys. Prime Video canceled Gen V earlier this year after two seasons.
He also played Lucas Bowden in Scream 7 this year and appeared in an episode of Netflix’s Dahmer series. That is a short resume for a role this size, and it matches the rest of the film. Most of this team is being played by actors who are known rather than famous.
Jake Schreier, who directed Thunderbolts, is behind the camera. Lee Sung Jin and Joanna Calo wrote the script and Kevin Feige is producing. X-Men opens May 5, 2028, less than five months after Avengers: Secret Wars closes out the Multiverse Saga on December 17, 2027.
For the full lineup as Disney announced it, read our coverage of the X-Men cast reveal at D23.
For the latest news and updates make sure to follow us on social media! Facebook | Twitter | Threads | Instagram | TikTok
