Adam Driver to Play Mister Sinister in Marvel’s X-Men

August 18, 2026

Marvel has confirmed Adam Driver as Nathaniel Essex, better known as Mister Sinister, in its upcoming X-Men film. The character will be the latest major mutant villain to reach the big screen after years of hints, abandoned plans and missed opportunities.

For Australian fans following the next era of Marvel’s mutant stories, the casting is notable for another reason: Driver previously played Kylo Ren, also known as Ben Solo, in the Star Wars sequel trilogy.

Adam Driver moves from Star Wars to X-Men

Driver revealed at D23 that he will portray Mister Sinister in the 2028 X-Men film. He had also worked with director Steven Soderbergh on a proposed follow-up called The Hunt for Ben Solo. Reports said former Disney chief executive Bob Iger cancelled the project, despite Kathleen Kennedy, then head of Lucasfilm, having approved it. The film’s status under the current Disney and Lucasfilm leadership remains unknown.

Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige has said the studio pursued Driver for years before securing him as Sinister. It is not yet clear whether the role is limited to this film or whether his contract could allow the character to return.

Mister Sinister’s long route to the screen

Driver is not the first actor connected with a live-action version of the villain. Jon Hamm was expected to appear as Sinister in a post-credits scene for Josh Boone’s 2020 film The New Mutants, but those scenes were never filmed.

Sinister is also known as Nathaniel Essex, and the Essex Corporation operates the facility where five mutant teenagers are imprisoned and subjected to experiments in Boone’s film. Hamm, a self-described comic-book and X-Men fan, said he was enthusiastic about the possibility of playing the part.

The New Mutants struggled through delays and reshoots, with production further complicated by Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox. The film ultimately performed poorly at the box office.

Essex Corporation had already been planted in the post-credits scene of Bryan Singer’s X-Men: Apocalypse in 2016. Men in black investigate the remains of a facility where William Stryker Jr. experimented on mutants, collect a blood sample for Weapon X and place it with other samples in an Essex Corp.-marked case.

Rather than following through with Sinister, the next X-Men film, Simon Kinberg’s Dark Phoenix in 2019, brought back the villain previously seen in Brett Ratner’s 2006 film X-Men: The Last Stand.

Who is Mister Sinister?

Nathaniel Essex lived during the same period as Charles Darwin and dedicated himself to improving human evolution. Apocalypse, who shared Essex’s belief in survival of the fittest, granted him immortality.

A caped Mister Sinister reassures Magneto and Professor X that he is the main Sinister, the one with a mutant gene, in Powers of X #4, Marvel Comics (2019).

Sinister’s obsession centres particularly on Jean Grey and Scott Summers. He believes their descendants could produce the ultimate mutant, a fixation that led him to create a Jean Grey clone named Madelyne Pryor.

In the 2028 film, Driver’s version of Sinister will torment Sadie Sink’s Jean Grey and Kit Connor’s Cyclops. The X-Men ’97 season-one episode Fire Made Flesh offers a useful animated preview of the character’s disturbing interests.