Adam Driver tipped for Magneto reignites Marvel’s longest-running fan gripe

Marvel casting is a contact sport at this point. The latest flare-up: rumors that Adam Driver might be stepping into Magneto’s helmet for the studio’s X-Men reboot. Predictably, the internet is split down the middle.

So, is Adam Driver really Magneto?

• Early chatter linked Driver to Marvel’s coming X-Men relaunch. That ramped up when Nexus Point News and Apoc Horseman said he is in talks to play Magneto.
• Reaction has been mixed. Some fans love the fit; others want Marvel to swing for a newer face instead of another A-lister.
• Commentator Grace Randolph summed up the pushback on X with:

  "I hope this Adam Driver / Magneto rumor is not true ... Are there no NEW actors to discover? Must we keep using the SAME ones over and over? And I love Adam Driver - but come on"

Where that leaves the reboot

Patrick Wilson is reportedly in talks to play Professor X in the same X-Men reset. A lot of people were hoping James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender would return as Professor X and Magneto, but the aim right now sounds like a full clean slate with a fresh cast.

For context: Marvel has rolled the dice on newer faces before. Tom Holland got the Spider- Man job at 19. He wasn’t an unknown to casting directors, but he was still a newcomer for most moviegoers, and that worked out fine. The Driver rumor would be the opposite approach: big name, proven intensity, built-in audience.

Meanwhile: the Pedro Pascal blowback is still a thing

Pedro Pascal, who played Reed Richards in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, says the backlash to his casting was louder than anything he has dealt with before. He told Vanity Fair he saw a lot of complaints from fans calling him "too old" for the role.

Pascal has been open about the criticism, and according to Vanessa Kirby in the same Vanity Fair conversation, that honesty helped build trust on set. Pascal is also set to reprise Reed Richards in Avengers: Doomsday.