The Night Manager star Noah Jupe is the latest familiar face to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) for an as-yet-unspecified role in Avengers: Secret Wars.
The actor began his career at age 10, wth early appearances in Penny Dreadful and the first season of The Night Manager, before notable film gigs such as A Quiet Place, Honey Boy and Ford v Ferrari.
Most recently, he reunited with Loki actor Tom Hiddleston in the belated second chapter of The Night Manager, and earned rave reviews for his role in poignant awards contender Hamnet.
Another of Jupe's Marvel contacts is Sadie Sink, with whom he recently co-starred in a West End production of Romeo & Juliet.
Avengers: Secret Wars is the concluding chapter of the MCU's Multiverse Saga, expected to resolve the (likely) cliffhanger ending of this December's Doomsday, while setting up an altered status quo for the long-running franchise.
Jupe's role is reportedly an important piece of the puzzle (via Deadline), with one character quickly emerging as the top prediction: Franklin Richards, the son of Fantastic Four parents Reed (Pedro Pascal) and Sue (Vanessa Kirby).
Those who watched 2025's Fantastic Four: First Steps will remember the character's dramatic birth, which occurred on a spaceship mid-flight, as well as a tease of his eventual status in the Marvel Universe.
Not only does Galactus (Ralph Ineson) sense great power in the infant boy, but Doctor Doom (Robert Downey Jr) also visits him in the film's post-credits scene – for reasons as-yet-unclear.
One prominent theory is that Franklin could be a substitute for Molecule Man in the screen version of Secret Wars, which finds the Marvel heroes in surprising new lives on Doom-ruled 'Battleworld' after the universe is destroyed.
Molecule Man is a former Fantastic Four villain of immense power – able to bend reality to his will – who Doctor Doom enlists to be the glue holding Battleworld together on a molecular level.
Franklin is similarly powerful, perhaps even more so, with a God-like ability to create living, breathing universes from scratch, so he would be able to slot in as Doom's reality generator quite easily.
Of course, that doesn't answer the question of his age. Last seen as a baby, Franklin would have grown up by two decades if Jupe is revealed to be playing him.
It's a head-scratcher recently echoed in Black Panther III's casting announcement, where David Jonsson (The Long Walk, Alien: Romulus) was announced as T'Challa II – a character played by seven-year-old Divine Love Konadu-Sun in 2022's Wakanda Forever.
In Franklin's case, the character has a history of time travel, with an older version mentoring his younger self in Fantastic Four comics by writer Jonathan Hickman, who later penned 2015's Secret Wars event series.
Perhaps Jonsson's aged-up T'Challa II could be another product of scouring the timeline for future heroes, particularly with Time Variance Authority (TVA) maverick Loki on-hand in Avengers: Doomsday (and quite possibly in Secret Wars, too).
If Franklin Richards has emerged as the clear favourite among speculating fans, he's certainly not the only casting option that has been floated.
After months of speculation, Sink is now confirmed to be playing Jean Grey in the reboot – having first appeared in this summer's Spider-Man: Brand New Day – with Jupe being viewed as a fit for Bobby Drake (aka Ice Man) or Warren Worthington (aka Angel).
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A more out-of-the-box choice, but certainly not impossible, is that Jupe could portray a young Victor von Doom in flashback scenes revealing the origin of Robert Downey Jr's incarnation of the character. Jupe's recent goatee can be thanked for that one.
Jupe spoke to just last month about his latest film & Sons, co-starring Bill Nighy, as well as his roles in The Night Manager season 3 and A Quiet Place Part III.
The actor now adds Secret Wars onto that already busy to-do list, with the Marvel sequel due to start filming before the end of this year for an intended Christmas 2027 release.
Avengers: Doomsday is released in cinemas on 18 December 2026. Secret Wars follows on 17 December 2027.
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