Australian actress Samara Weaving is set to star as Emma Frost in Marvel’s “X-Men” reboot, TheWrap has learned.
“Thunderbolts*” director Jake Schreier is attached to direct the project. “Beef” creator and writer Lee Sung Jin has been tapped alongside writer Joanna Calo to tackle a new draft of the script.
Created by the legendary writer Chris Claremont and the artist John Byrne, Emma Frost is a mutant with telepathic abilities who first appeared in “The Uncanny X-Men” #129, published in January 1980.
When Marvel’s “X-Men” film was first announced, it was revealed that “Hunger Games” writer Michael Lesslie wrote the screenplay. Exact plot details are still under wraps, but speaking to press last July, Marvel head Kevin Feige teased that the story will be true to “X-Men” form.
“I don’t want to talk too much about ‘X-Men,’ because that’s still a ways away,” he said at the time. “But you look at what the X-Men comics have always been, and they have been young, and they have been a place to tell stories about young people who feel different, and who feel other, and who feel like they don’t belong.”
Weaving most recently starred in “Ready or Not 2: Here I Come,” “Over Your Dead Body” and crime thriller “Carolina Caroline,” Her other credits include “The Babysitter,” “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” “Scream VI” and “Bill & Ted Face the Music.” Weaving is repped by CAA and 111 media.
A rep for Marvel Studios did not respond to The Wrap’s request for comment.
Deadline first reported the news.