Kit Connor is Marvel Studios' choice to play Scott Summers, better known as Cyclops, in its upcoming X-Men film, according to Deadline.

The role comes with serious baggage in the best possible way. Cyclops — the visor-wearing mutant who fires optic blasts and has led the X-Men since their first comic in 1963, created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby — has been a centrepiece of every live-action X-Men era. James Marsden played him across three films in the 2000s; Tye Sheridan took over for multiple entries in the 2010s. Marsden is confirmed to reprise the role in Avengers: Doomsday, arriving in cinemas this December.

Connor's path to the part was competitive. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige and director Jake Schreier met with several candidates before landing on the 21-year-old actor. A small group tested after the July 4 holiday, and Connor emerged as the studio's pick. Marvel Studios and Connor's representatives, WME and Independent Talent Group, could not be reached for comment.

Connor rose to prominence as Nick Nelson in Netflix's Heartstopper, a teen romance series that became a word-of-mouth hit, and he reprised the role in the film spin-off Heartstopper Forever. Director Alex Garland cast him in the A24 war film Warfare and in the upcoming video-game adaptation Elden Ring, giving Connor a footing in both prestige and blockbuster territory before Marvel came calling.

He is not the only piece falling into place. In late July, Deadline reported that Samara Weaving had been chosen to play Emma Frost, the diamond-skinned telepath and on-and-off X-Men ally, after the studio met with a number of candidates for that role. The two castings suggest Marvel is building its mutant ensemble in deliberate layers.

Behind the camera, the infrastructure is set. Schreier, whose Thunderbolts brought a ragtag team of Marvel antiheroes to screens, will direct. The script comes from Lee Sung Jin, creator of the revenge drama Beef, and Joanna Calo, co-creator of the kitchen-set series The Bear — a writing duo that signals Marvel's willingness to hand its mutant franchise to voices rooted in character-driven television rather than established blockbuster tentpoles.

No release date for the X-Men film has been announced. What is clear is the shape of the thing: a director, a writing team, and now at least two of the mutant roles filled. Connor steps into a character that has been recast more than once and never quite left the screen — and into a franchise that Marvel has been inching toward since it regained the X-Men rights from 20th Century Fox.