Samara Weaving seemingly manifested her X-Men role long before Marvel Studios came calling, and an Emma Frost-inspired look from her own Instagram page proves it. The Australian actress will play Frost in the studio’s upcoming X-Men reboot, becoming the first performer attached to the film from Thunderbolts director Jake Schreier. Deadline first reported the casting on July 31, but Marvel Studios themselves have not officially confirmed it.
Photos Weaving posted on Instagram in October 2024 resurfaced once the casting news broke, and they now feel like an audition she taped almost two years early. The photos show the Ready or Not star dressed head to toe in white, a dead ringer for the character’s signature style. Celebrity stylist Jordan Dorso, who has long collaborated with Weaving, helped put the beautiful outfit together. The photos capture the actress posing on a sunlit balcony in an ensemble Emma Frost could have pulled straight from her own closet.
The look pairs a white button-up cardigan with a matching mini skirt, white thigh-high stockings clipped to garter straps, and pointed silver heels, all finished with a bold red lip and her natural blonde hair. Frost’s wardrobe in the comics rarely strays from that formula. White corsets, capes, furs, and thigh-high boots have served as her calling card since her earliest appearances.
Emma Frost debuted in 1980’s The Uncanny X-Men #129 from writer Chris Claremont and artist John Byrne. She is a powerful telepath who can also transform her body into organic diamond, and her icy attitude earned her the White Queen title during her days with the villainous Hellfire Club.
The reboot marks the first X-Men team movie produced by Marvel Studios since Disney bought 20th Century Fox in 2019. Michael Lesslie was brought on board to write the script but has been replaced by Beef creator Lee Sung Jin and The Bear writer Joanna Calo. Feige kept plot details close to the vest last year, though he noted that the comics have always centered on young people who feel different and excluded. The film is expected to arrive after the culmination of the Multiverse Saga, Avengers: Secret Wars.
Emma Frost Might Finally Get the Spotlight She Deserves
The decision to cast Frost ahead of any version of Cyclops or Wolverine says plenty about where Schreier’s film may be headed, and Frost could end up being a critical part of the story. The White Queen is an iconic character and has plenty of comic storylines Marvel could draw inspiration from.
She ran the Massachusetts Academy and trained the young mutants of Generation X before switching sides. She could play the role of an older figure in the youth-focused X-Men film, especially given the fact that Weaving is 34. In a setup like that, she could steal the spotlight as either a villain or an ally of the mutant team.
Live-action has shortchanged the character for decades. Finola Hughes played the White Queen in Generation X, a 1996 TV movie pilot that never became a series. X-Men Origins: Wolverine later introduced a diamond-skinned teenager named Emma who barely spoke.
January Jones then took over in X-Men: First Class, where Frost served as Sebastian Shaw’s icy second-in-command with little else to do, and X-Men: Days of Future Past revealed her death without the actress reprising the role.
Despite how awesome she is on the page, Emma hardly received the spotlight she deserved in live-action adaptations. Marvel is now in the position to right those wrongs. Jean Grey was similarly disrespected during the Fox era, and Brand New Day just gave her one of the most powerful mutant story arcs in recent memory. Fingers crossed, Emma also gets a similar treatment.
Geraldo Amartey is a writer at The Direct. He joined the team in 2025, bringing with him four years of experience covering entertainment news, pop culture, and fan-favorite franchises for sites like YEN, Briefly and Tuko.
