James Marsden just dropped a hilarious bombshell about his connection with Olivia Munn, and it dates back to way before either of them became household names.
In a new interview with People, the 51-year-old actor said that in the early days of his career, after he’d just found some fame on TV, he returned home to visit family and ended up joining his sister and her college friends for dinner. One of those friends? A then-22-year-old Olivia Munn.
Marsden shared that during this visit home, his sister asked if he’d tag along to dinner with her and some of her girlfriends. “You go and take some pictures or whatever,” he said casually. But years later, at a GQ party in LA, Olivia Munn came running up to him with a memory that floored him. “She said, ‘I’m friends with Jenny, your sister; we went to Applebee’s back in the day!’” Marsden recalled. His response? Pure disbelief. “I was like, ‘Wait, what? I would’ve remembered you’!”
Fast forward to today, and these two are co-starring in Apple+’s new show Your Friends and Neighbors. Marsden thinks it’s totally “crazy” how full-circle their story has come. It’s not just about being in the same show either, they both have X-Men roots, so the Hollywood overlap goes even deeper. Olivia played Psylocke, and Marsden famously portrayed Cyclops.
Speaking of which, Marsden is getting ready to suit up as Cyclops again in Avengers: Doomsday, set to drop in May 2026. He sounds pumped about returning to the iconic role, saying, “I’m going to enjoy the good stuff while we’re firing on all cylinders. It’s been a lot of good stuff. It’s all good, man, all good stuff.”
So yeah, James Marsden once unknowingly had dinner with future co-star Olivia Munn when she was just his sister’s college friend. Now they’re on-screen together, years later, living that full Hollywood circle moment. Applebee’s to Apple+, if you will.
