With it announced last week that 2016 will see the release of X-MEN: APOCALYPSE, James McAvoy has now confirmed that he is indeed contracted for a return as Charles Xavier after next year’s X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST. 

According to CBM, from an interview carried out by Red Carpet News TV, McAvoy was seemingly in the dark about APOCALYPSE until the last few days. “I only heard about it this morning,” he revealed. Talking about DAYS OF FUTURE PAST, he called it “the biggest X-Men film yet, without a doubt.” McAvoy then went on to confirm that he is contracted for a third appearance as Professor Xavier, and one would assume that this would be for X-MEN: APOCALYPSE, particularly with early reports claiming that the film will follow the timeline of the younger versions of Xavier and Magneto. 

Discussing the Xavier character, McAvoy went on,“The personal pleasure for me in FIRST CLASS was presenting a Charles Xavier to the fans, but also a new audience, who’s very different from the Charles that you expected. But he was still very sort of ‘Everything’s going good!’ In the second movie I get to present another version of Charles Xavier who’s still very different from the Charles that used to exist, but he’s also remarkably different to the Charles in FIRST CLASS as well. So what’s great is that even though it’s a sequel, then through it’s a franchise, I keep getting to reinvent Charles Xavier and that’s amazing. I’ve got to do it twice now, because the Charles in this film is unrecognisable from the Charles in the last film as well as unrecognisable from the Charles played by Patrick Stewart, who I then get to face up to .That’s sort of theatrical, almost. It’s like we’re playing a game with the audience, saying ‘look at the many faces of Charles-Patrick Stewart-Xavier-McAvoy.’ It’s really good fun.” 

The DAYS OF FUTURE PAST comic arc features an alternative future where all mutants are hunted by Sentinels after a key senator was assassinated by a group of rogue mutants. Using time travel, the Kitty Pryde tries to warn the younger X-Men of what terror is to come so that they can stop the assassination and save the future. The film adaptation is going to have Wolverine be sent back in time by Kitty, mainly due to the audience’s love of Jackman’s Logan and the fact that Kitty Pryde doesn’t actually exist in the ‘past’ part of the universe. 

Forming quite the ensemble cast, the film sees James McAvoy as the younger Professor X, Patrick Stewart as the older Professor X, Michael Fassbender as the younger Magneto, Ian McKellen as the older Magneto, Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, Halle Berry as Storm, Ellen Page as Kitty Pryde, Anna Paquin as Rogue, Shawn Ashmore as Iceman, Daniel Cudmore as Colossus, Nicholas Hoult as Beast, Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique. Evan Peters as Quicksilver, Omar Sy as Bishop, Fan Binbing as Blink, Lucas Till as Havok, Peter Dinklage as Bolivar Trask and Josh Helman as a young William Stryker. It also seems as if Booboo Stewart will be playing Warpath, with an as yet unconfirmed role for Adan Canto. There are also strong reports that James Marsden will be returning as Cyclops.

X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST will be released on 23rd May, 2014.

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