Jon Hamm Finally Confirms The X-Men Casting Rumors
This article is more than 2 years old
Remember The New Mutants? You know, that movie that was delayed for so long it may as well have been a new Guns N’ Roses album? For years, it’s been rumored that Jon Hamm of Mad Men fame was cast as the X-Men villain Mister Sinister for a post-credits scene of the film, and that the scene was deleted from the final cut. Now, a year and a half after the film’s release, Hamm has finally confirmed the rumors. Well, he’s confirmed some of them.
Speaking to Yahoo, Jon Hamm confirmed that he was, at the very least, poised to play Mister Sinister. The rumors that he had actually shot a scene which was cut, Hamm says, aren’t true. “I never shot anything,” Hamm clarifies. “I remember having a conversation with people: I’m a huge comic book fan, especially of the X-Men and The New Mutants, so I was excited to be considered. But these conversations happen and then life intervenes.” Easter eggs in films like 2016’s X-Men: Apocalypse and even 2018’s Deadpool 2 hinted that Mister Sinister was entering the narrative, but the plan — like so many things in Fox’s concluded X-Men narrative — died on the vine.
Mister Sinister has an interesting if, perhaps, confusing history in Marvel Comics. Initially, Nathaniel Essex was not a mutant, but gained powers through an alliance with Apocalypse. He is something of a champion when it comes to dying and coming back. Not only does he have regenerative powers that make Wolverine’s look like an expired first aid kit in comparison, but he once had an entire community of clones to ensure his immortality. All but one of those clones were destroyed and the survivor was created with an X-gene and, hence, a mutant.
The character Jon Hamm could have played was introduced in a strange manner. He’s first mentioned in 1986’s Uncanny X-Men #212, during an event called The Mutant Massacre — the first Marvel line-wide event of its type that dealt mostly with the X-Men-related titles. At the behest of Mister Sinister, for initially mysterious reasons, the Marauders — all mutants themselves — slaughter the underground mutant community called the Morlocks who live in New York City’s subway tunnels. Sinister himself wouldn’t even appear in a comic book until 1987’s Uncanny X-Men #221, and it would still be years before his motivations were revealed.
It is a shame we never got to see the realization of Jon Hamm as Mister Sinister. If nothing else, it would have provided a bit of synchronicity between the cinematic Fox X-Men universe and FX’s incredible series Legion. While Jon Hamm never starred on the series physically, starting with the season 2 premiere, he occasionally acted as narrator. When the rumors began to emerge about Mister Sinister, some fans even theorized it meant Hamm was narrating Legion as Mister Sinister.
Of course, with the X-Men now falling under Disney’s control, there’s no reason Jon Hamm couldn’t play Mister Sinister in an upcoming MCU project. Actually, it’s a good bet Sinister is on Marvel’s short list for the mutants’ first major bad guy. After all, he’s one of the few major X-Men villains who has yet to be featured in a live-action adaptation.
