We already know a handful of the actors who will be joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe when Marvel finally fully reboots the X-Men in 2028. Sadie Sink has already made her debut as Jean Grey in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and others set to join the mutant crew in the new film include Inde Navarrette as Rogue, Maya Boyd as Storm, Christopher Abbot as Professor X, Kit Connor as Cyclops, and Samara Weaving as Emma Frost. Adam Driver will round out the cast as villain Mr. Sinister, but there are plenty of other X-Men who aren’t accounted for.
Enter Cody Rhodes, a WWE wrestler turned actor who is playing Guile in the new Street Fighter movie that’s out tonight. With his new movie in theaters, he and the rest of the cast have been on a promotional tour, and in a new interview with Nerdist, Rhodes may have accidentally let it slip that he’s in the X-Men movie.
At the 1:29 mark, Rhodes is talking about his various nerd interests, and says what sure sounds like “I’m in X-Men.” . His co-star, anti-woke personality Andrew Schulz, reacts immediately, saying “Wait, you are?”, and then, as Rhodes carries on as if all is normal, says he thought Rhodes had just “made an announcement” of some kind. If Rhodes realized what he’d said, he maintained a great poker face and managed to carry on the interview without missing a beat.
On its own, this clip doesn’t really confirm anything, but this apparently isn’t the first time Schulz has implied that Rhodes has some secret X-Men connection he hasn’t announced yet. While Rhodes was appearing on Schulz’s Flagrant podcast, Schulz made a joke about the power-stealing mutant Rogue, and then looked to Rhodes and asked, “What franchise is Rogue in?” Rhodes avoids answering the question and seems to try to change the subject to the cigars they’re all enjoying. It’s all just awkward and strange enough to make you wonder if Rhodes is hiding something.
Now, fans are speculating about who Rhodes could be playing in the movie. There’s no shortage of big buff mutants in the X-Men universe, so could he be Colossus, Cable, Havok, Iceman, or someone less obvious and prominent? If he’s locked down the role, maybe an official announcement is imminent.
For now, the MCU is focused pretty squarely on December’s Avengers: Doomsday, though VisionQuest premiered this week on Disney+ and is pretty good so far.