X-Men rumor: Marvel wants Peter Claffey, HBO's new Game of Thrones lead, as Beast

Peter Claffey, who plays Ser Duncan the Tall in HBO's A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, is in line to play Hank McCoy in Marvel Studios' X-Men reboot, according to an October 25, 2026, report from Knight Edge Media that JoBlo picked up the same day. Marvel hasn't commented. The role is the most obvious gap left in the lineup Marvel unveiled in August, and the film opens May 5, 2028.

This is the rumor's second lap. In April, Jeff Sneider said on The Hot Mic that Marvel was interested in Claffey for Beast and in Odessa A'Zion for Rogue, and stressed that, as far as he knew, neither actor was actually in talks. Four months later, Rogue went to someone else.

Who's already on the team

Kevin Feige brought the cast on stage at D23 in Anaheim on August 14, 2026, per Forbes:

• Sadie Sink: Jean Grey
• Kit Connor: Scott Summers / Cyclops
• Christopher Abbott: Charles Xavier
• Samara Weaving: Emma Frost
• Inde Navarrette: Rogue, the part Sneider had linked to A'Zion
• Maya Boyd: Ororo Munroe / Storm
• Adam Driver: Nathaniel Milbury, the "very sinister figure" Marvel's release described, which everyone reads as Mister Sinister

Asa Germann has since been reported as Angel. Beast, one of the five original X-Men in the 1963 comics, still has no name next to him.

Behind the camera, it's a Thunderbolts* reunion. Jake Schreier directs from a draft by Lee Sung Jin and Joanna Calo, who both worked on that film's script. A cast built around Sink and Connor tells you Marvel is going young, and Beast is the role where young has to come with size.

Who is Peter Claffey

Claffey was born in 1996 in Portumna, County Galway, and spent his early twenties as a lock forward. He joined the Connacht Rugby academy in 2015, played for Ireland's under-20s, signed a professional contract in 2018 and was released in 2019 without a senior appearance, per his Wikipedia biography. He is 6 feet 5 inches tall.

Acting came next, and fast. He played Callum in the first series of Apple TV+'s Bad Sisters, led BBC Three's horror comedy Wreck and had a run on Netflix's Vikings: Valhalla. Then HBO made him Dunk, the hedge knight of George R.R. Martin's novellas, when A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms premiered in January 2026.

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Season 2, adapting The Sworn Sword, was shot in Spain this year, survived an April flood on set and is expected in 2027, per CinemaBlend. Any Marvel shoot would have to fit around it.

Dunk spends Martin's novellas calling himself "thick as a castle wall." Marvel may hand him the smartest man at Xavier's school.

Two Beasts in two years

The Hank McCoy situation is crowded. Kelsey Grammer, who first played Beast in 2006's X-Men: The Last Stand and slipped into the MCU in the post-credits scene of 2023's The Marvels, is back in the fur for Avengers: Doomsday on December 18, 2026. He'll be 71.

"One of the great opportunities in my life."

— Kelsey Grammer, on returning as Beast, via SciFiNow

Grammer doesn't appear to be staying for the reboot, which means audiences could meet one Beast in December 2026 and a different one in May 2028. Fox already did the two-Beast handoff once: Nicholas Hoult played the young Hank McCoy from First Class in 2011 through Dark Phoenix in 2019, and he now plays Lex Luthor for DC.

The corporate map adds a wrinkle. Claffey's breakout came from HBO, which since October 6 belongs to David Ellison's newly renamed Skydance. Marvel would be borrowing the lead of a rival conglomerate's newest franchise.

My read: the fit is too neat for Marvel to ignore. A former rugby lock carries the bulk, the D23 lineup sets the age, and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms already proved he can carry a franchise lead. Until Marvel puts him on a stage, though, it's still a rumor, and the last actor this rumor paired him with isn't playing Rogue.

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