Despite a meteoric rise at Netflix, Millie Bobby Brown has a few regrets, notably about the X-Men saga, for which she nearly landed a role.
Millie Bobby Brown’s ascent has been nothing short of rapid, kicking off at a very young age with Netflix’s Stranger Things in 2016, when she was barely 11. What followed were multiple film projects under the streaming giant, where she not only led but also took a seat at the producers’ table. This includes The Damsel and the Dragon, released in 2024, and the Enola Holmes franchise, whose third installment has just hit the screens.
When it comes to Hollywood blockbusters, Brown already has a handful of experiences—though not all of them are remembered as high points. She led the heroine in Godzilla: King of the Monsters, one of the more underwhelming entries in the shared universe, and she later reprised the role in Godzilla vs. Kong. On Netflix, she acted opposite Chris Pratt in The Electric State, a project with a towering budget rumored to be around $320 million, a figure that remains shrouded in mystery to this day. Yet her career could have unfolded quite differently if she had nailed the casting for one of the X‑Men films.
Millie Bobby Brown Craving Superpowers
As part of Entertainment Weekly’s “Lie vs. Lie” feature, facing Louis Partridge, Millie Bobby Brown revealed that she had missed out on a major X‑Men role:
“I auditioned for a Wolverine movie with Hugh Jackman when I was 11 or 12, and I felt like I hadn’t measured up, because I think someone else was better.”
Even though she tried to keep the details of the film under wraps, it was widely understood that she was talking about the role of Laura Kinney, aka X‑23, in Logan, a point she quickly confirmed:
“It was for Logan. I just wanted to trap you with the Wolverine movies.”
In the end, it was Dafne Keen who was chosen to portray the mutant and Wolverine’s “daughter.” The filming of the X‑Men spin‑off took place in the summer of 2026, precisely at a moment when the first season of Stranger Things—shot between late 2015 and early 2016—was released on Netflix, propelling Millie Bobby Brown to the forefront of the industry. In another dimension, the Eleven performer could have landed two massive roles simultaneously, on both the small and the big screen.
Millie Bobby Brown therefore did not join the MCU as Dafne Keen did, who reprised her Laura in Deadpool and Wolverine in 2024. But she has plenty to keep her occupied, especially with Netflix. After stepping away from the film Perfect about American artistic gymnast Kerri Strug, she will focus on a project where she is especially central: Netflix will adapt her 2023 novel Nineteen Steps (Les Dix-neuf Marches in the French edition). The book recounts the story of her London-based grandmother Nellie Morris during the bombings of World War II, with a particular emphasis on her relationship with an American pilot. The adaptation is set to be directed by Oscar-winner Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech, The Danish Girl, Les Misérables).
