MCU X-Men Star “Guarantees” the Film Will Be Better Than His Other Marvel Movie

There’s a whole new era of the Marvel Cinematic Universe that’s taking shape, even as the franchise moves into the cataclysmic events of Avengers: Doomsday. Once Doomsday is over and the Secret Wars have been fought, the next era of the MCU will begin by finally bringing the X-Men into the franchise. Marvel will finally be complete, with its full roster of characters under one roof for the first time.

Casting for X-Men (2028) has been one of the biggest events in Hollywood all year, which saw rising actors and actresses all trying to land a role. The film is being directed by Jake Schreier, with a screenplay by Joanna Calo and Lee Sung Jin (Beef), and Michael Lesslie (The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes). The confirmed cast of the film is a mix of young up-and-comers and some experienced character actors. One member of the cast is experienced enough to have done a Marvel movie before, and he knows all too well how far left things can go when the adaptation isn’t done right.

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Christopher Abbott has been putting up memorable screen performances since his debut (alongside MCU Elizabeth Olsen) in Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011). While he’s mostly stuck to those kinds of bold visions crafted by talented new directors, Abbott has also dipped into a few franchise roles, with one of the most recent being the enigmatic hitman “The Foreigner” in Sony’s Spider-Man spinoff, Kraven the Hunter. Kraven was one of the biggest bombs Sony put out in recent memory, earning a little over $60 million against a budget that was over $120 million. It all but killed Sony’s Spider-Man universe – but to his credit, Chris Abbott was given high praise for his creepy take on The Foreigner.

When X-Men (2028) hits theaters, Christopher Abbott will bolster the reboot by taking over the role of Charles Xavier, aka Professor X. As the cast gets ready for production, Abbott has one promise to make to fans: this will not be as bad as Kraven. In fact, when asked point-blank by Happy Sad Confused host Josh Horowitz if X-Men will be better than Kraven, Abbott said, in no uncertain terms, “I will guarantee you that.”

That’s a pretty solid guarantee, as Abbott was also very upfront about admitting that he knew, pretty early on while filming, that Kraven the Hunter wasn’t going to achieve greatness. Abbott says his friend, director J.C. Chandor, “owes me big time” for doing Kraven, before admitting he had no idea what he was doing in the film. “I didn’t know what I was doing in that thing. I didn’t understand what the superpower was; I didn’t know what was going on. I was like, ‘So I take off my glasses and what happens?’ I feel like no one had a good answer. I don’t know what I was wearing in that thing. I’ve sort of buried that deep in me.”

While he praised his Kraven castmates (Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Alessandro Nivola), Abbott had to admit that things are looking a lot stronger with X-Men. That’s what he wants, as he’s finally ready to fully step into a major franchise role – especially one that resonates with his childhood. “See, now, getting older too, I am looking forward to that [stability]. You know the team is really good: Jake Schreier, who’s directing it, I’m very excited to work with him. And I have roots in X-Men: I loved it when I was a kid. Loved it. I loved the cartoon; I had comics, toys. So it’s not just jumping into a Marvel thing for the sake of it. I have some childhood or adolescent stake.”

Abbott will be starring as Xavier opposite Star Wars actor Adam Driver (Kylo Ren) as X-Men villain Mister Sinister, a mad scientist geneticist. It’s ironic, because both actors got their first big breakouts playing major male love interests of the female characters in Lena Dunham’s landmark HBO series Girls in the 2010s.

When asked if he and Driver have talked about the cosmic circular turns of showbiz, Abbott said, “No, no, we haven’t. Of Course I thought about it; I thought that was funny. But you know, that’s Jake’s fault. Yeah [laughter]. But I mean: I didn’t even work with Adam on Girls. Like, we didn’t really have anything together. So I feel like we haven’t worked together yet.”

If you want a lesson in how weird showbiz is, this is a great example. Even though Abbott and Driver played the boyfriends of two best friends living in NYC (Allison Williams and Dunham, respectively), somehow Girls never brought the two beaus together for any kind of interactive moment or episode. So now, 14 years later, they get that opportunity in a major X-Men movie.

X-Men has a release date of May 5, 2028.

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