Here’s Every Emma Frost Comic Samara Weaving Is Reading to Prep for Marvel’s ‘X-Men’ Reboot
Samara Weaving’s casting as Emma Frost in Marvel Studios’ new ‘X-Men‘ reboot has fans dissecting every hint she drops online, and this week she gave them something concrete to work with. Rather than staying vague about her preparation, Weaving actually revealed the specific comics she’s been reading through her own Instagram Story, giving fans a genuine window into which corners of Emma Frost’s decades-long history she’s studying first, only days after the role was officially announced at D23.
That reading list arrived alongside a poolside photo Weaving had already shared showing her flipping through a stack of comics, captioned “Don’t read into it.” According to a follow-up post, the actual titles she’s working through include Emma Frost’s original 2003 solo series, 2025’s ‘Emma Frost: The White Queen’ issue #3, ‘Astonishing X-Men’ #13 from 2004, and ‘X-Men: Hellfire Galas’ from 2025.
That selection isn’t random. Together, the four books trace Emma’s evolution from her earliest days as a supervillain through her eventual standing as one of the X-Men’s most complex, powerful members, giving Weaving a genuinely comprehensive foundation to build the character from.
‘Emma Frost: The White Queen,’ the most recent title on Weaving’s list, is a five-issue limited series written by Amy Chu with art by Andrea Di Vito, released throughout the second half of 2025. According to Marvel’s own description, the story is set during Emma’s time as the ruthless White Queen of the Hellfire Club, following her fight for power within the Inner Circle while she hunts down a mole leaking Hellfire Club secrets to the X-Men.
Chu has described the project as a deliberate showcase of “BAD Emma Frost,” built as a straight-up action thriller in the vein of classic spy fiction, with Emma traveling the globe to root out whoever is trying to take her down. That framing lines up closely with the version of Emma many fans expect to see reflected in the new film, given her comic-book origins as a villain long before she ever aligned herself with the X-Men.
Emma’s original 2003 solo series, meanwhile, gives Weaving a look at an earlier attempt to spotlight the character on her own, offering additional context for how writers have handled her voice and psychology across different eras. ‘Astonishing X-Men’ #13, published in 2004, comes from Joss Whedon and John Cassaday’s celebrated run, one of the most acclaimed X-Men stories of the 2000s and a key chapter in Emma’s transition toward heroism.
‘X-Men: Hellfire Galas,’ the most recent entry from 2025, ties back into the glamorous, high-society side of the Hellfire Club that has remained central to Emma’s identity across every era of her history. Together, the four titles suggest Weaving is building her performance around both Emma’s villainous roots and her later evolution, rather than leaning into just one side of the character.
With Marvel Studios still deep in the early stages of assembling its ‘X-Men’ reboot for a May 5, 2028 release, Weaving’s reading list gives fans their most concrete look yet at how seriously she’s approaching one of the franchise’s most iconic roles. Between the villain-era deep dive and the more heroic later chapters, it’s clear Weaving isn’t leaving any part of Emma’s complicated history unexamined.
Which Emma Frost era should Samara Weaving draw from most for her MCU performance?
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