Adam Driver Explains Why He’s Starring in Marvel’s ‘X-Men’ Reboot After Years of Turning Down MCU Offers: ‘Felt Like the Right Time’

Adam Driver opened up about why he said yes to playing Mister Sinister in the “X-Men” reboot after turning down many Marvel movies over the years.

“I was a big fan [of ‘X-Men]. I mean, I was a fan of the other things too, but this one felt like the right time,” Driver said during a recent appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Further reflecting on the reasons he joined the project, Driver added, “It was really ‘X-Men,’ Jake Schreier, who’s the director, his idea for it, and that it’s Kevin Feige. It all kind of came together. The script is really cool.”

Driver explained that he was very selective about joining the MCU because “a lot of people are going to watch it, and if it’s bad, you know, a lot of people will see you being bad. Plus, I don’t want to mess it up.”

Marvel head Kevin Feige recently told the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast that he has offered so many Marvel roles to Driver that it has become somewhat of a “tradition” that, when a new project is on the horizon, they meet on Zoom about a part and Driver turns it down.

“It’s no secret we’d like to [work with Adam],” Feige said. “But it’s a tradition to Zoom with him and then he passes. That’s a long-lived tradition. He couldn’t be more cordial. He is usually upfront about how he is feeling.”

In the new “X-Men” film, Driver will play Dr. Nathaniel Essex, aka Mister Sinister, a superintelligent, shape-shifting telepath. As the movie’s main antagonist, he will do battle against Sadie Sink as Jean Grey, Inde Navarrette as Rogue, Kit Connor as Cyclops, Christopher Abbott as Charles Xavier, Maya Boyd as Storm and Asa Germann as Angel.