Hunger Games Star Officially Joins Marvel’s New X-Men Movie

Hannah covers horror, sci-fi, and games at Collider, where she writes news and features, reviews new releases, and interviews the people who make them. She’s helping build out Collider‘s gaming coverage, with Pokémon as one of her specialties. If she isn’t writing about a monster, she’s probably watching one on a tape from her VHS collection.

With Marvel assembling a new class of X-Men, the casting comes with the added pressure of finding actors fans will want to watch argue in a mansion for the next decade. The powers are part of the appeal, of course, but so much of the team’s popularity comes from what happens between missions. These people have to live together, and saving each other’s lives doesn’t necessarily make sharing a home any easier.

Bobby Drake is an especially fun part of that equation. One of the original five X-Men, he brings a sense of humor to a group that can get very serious very quickly. His laid-back attitude also makes it easy to underestimate him, which tends to be a mistake when you’re dealing with someone whose control over ice extends far beyond throwing a few snowballs.

Ben Wang has entered talks to play Bobby Drake, better known as Iceman, in Marvel Studios’ new X-Men movie, according to new reports. The Karate Kid: Legends and The Long Walk star would take over the role previously played by Shawn Ashmore in Fox’s movies. His deal has not yet closed, however, and according to the report Marvel representatives could not be reached for comment. If negotiations work out, Wang will join Kit Connor as Cyclops, Sadie Sink as Jean Grey, and Asa Germann as Angel. The ensemble also includes Christopher Abbott as Professor X, Adam Driver as Mr. Sinister, Samara Weaving as Emma Frost, Inde Navarrette as Rogue, and Maya Boyd as Storm. Jake Schreier is directing from a screenplay by Lee Sung Jin and Joanna Calo, with Kevin Feige producing.

Four powers, and four completely different kinds of person behind them.
Here is what you would wake up with, what it would cost you, and why the MCU keeps handing it to
somebody exactly like you.

You get the power that is really about taking the hit so that
nobody else has to. Strength in the MCU always lands on people who were already carrying too
much, which is exactly why it suits you.

• Your instinct is to put yourself between the problem and the people, and you do it
  before anybody has thought to ask.
• Bruce Banner is the most interesting version of this because his story was never about
  lifting things, it was about control.
• The catch with strength is that people stop checking whether you are alright, since you
  have made a habit of looking like you always are.
• You would be the one everybody calls at two in the morning, and you would answer every
  single time.

You get the power that never switches off. Spider-sense is a gift
and a nervous system on permanent alert, and the people who get it in these films are always
the ones who were already worrying about everybody.

• You read a situation faster than you can explain it, and you are usually right in a way
  you cannot show your working for.
• Peter Parker is the template because he takes on more than he can hold and then
  apologises for not holding it well enough.
• Spider-Man: Brand New Day arrived in July 2026 and put him back to being local, broke
  and permanently on call.
• The cost here is real, since a power that warns you about everything also means you are
  never quite off duty.

You get the quietest power in the building, and quietly the most
useful. Invisibility comes with force fields for a reason, because the people who prefer not
to be seen are usually the ones holding a shield around everybody else.

• You notice everything, largely because you spend more time observing a room than
  performing in it.
• Sue Storm is the strongest member of her team and the least interested in anybody saying
  so, which is very much your energy.
• The Fantastic Four: First Steps finally gave the family a proper MCU home in 2025 and
  made her the centre of it.
• Your risk is that being unseen becomes a habit rather than a choice, and the people who
  love you would like a look in.

You get the biggest and least comfortable power on the list, the
one that runs directly on feeling. Chaos magic is not really a superpower in the MCU so much
as an emotional state with consequences attached.

• You feel things at a volume other people do not, and you have spent years managing that
  rather than being managed by it.
• Wanda is the best written character Marvel has, precisely because her power and her
  grief turned out to be the same thing.
• WandaVision remains the high point of Marvel television, and it works because the
  spectacle is only ever a symptom.
• The warning attached to this one is simple. A power that answers to how you feel is only
  ever as steady as you are.

Who Is Iceman in Marvel’s ‘X-Men’?

<Image via 20th Century Studios

<Image via Marvel Comics

This is a developing story. Please refresh your page for updates from Collider!

• <

  Sadie Sink

  Jean Grey

  ❤Enjoying this article? Support our work with a small crypto donation.Donate

  ×

  Support Our Work

  Your donation, in crypto, helps us keep going.

  USD 10 USD 25 USD 50 USD 100 Custom

  Enter amount (USD)

  Name (optional)

  Email (for your receipt)

  Message (optional)

  Donate with Crypto
• <

  Inde Navarrette

  Rogue / Anna Marie

• <

  Kit Connor

  Scott Summers / Cyclops

• <

  Samara Weaving

  Emma Frost