Last week Bryan Singer dropped a big surprise with the announcement that he’s set to follow up X-Men: Days of Future Past by adapting another popular X-Men arc in 2016 with X-Men: Apocalypse. However, it seems that the fans weren’t the only ones in the dark about the film, with James McAvoy revealing that he’d only just learned about the sequel himself and has no knowledge about it…
“I only heard about [it] this morning,” McAvoy tells Red Carpet News, before admitting that he’d be more than happy to reprise the role of Charles Xavier for a third time after X-Men: First Class and X-Men: Days of Future Past. “I’d contracted [to return] and yes, I would [like to].”
McAvoy then went on to discuss the appeal of playing the leader of the X-Men: “The personal pleasure for me in First Class was in presenting a Charles Xavier to the fans who is very different to the Charles that you expected but he was still like ‘everything is going good’. In the second movie, I get to present another version of Charles Xavier who is still very different to the Charles that used to exist but he’s also remarkably different from the Charles in First Class as well. What’s great is that, even though it’s a sequel, even though it’s a franchise, I keep getting to reinvent Charles Xavier and that’s amazing.”
X-Men: Days of Future Past is set for release on May 23rd 2014 with McAvoy joined in the cast by X-Men veterans Hugh Jackman (Wolverine), Jennifer Lawrence (Mystique), Michael Fassbender (Magneto), Nicholas Hoult (Beast), Patrick Stewart (Professor X), Ian McKellen (Magneto), Lucas Till (Havok), Halle Berry (Storm), Anna Paquin (Rogue), Ellen Page (Kitty Pryde), Shawn Ashmore (Iceman) and Daniel Cudmore (Colossus) alongside X-Men newcomers Evan Peters (American Horror Story) as Quicksilver, Booboo Stewart (The Twilight Saga: Eclipse) as Warpath, Omar Sy (The Intouchables) as Bishop, Fan Binbing (Iron Man 3) as Blink, Adam Canto (The Following) as Sunspot, Josh Helman (Mad Max: Fury Road) as William Stryker and Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones) as Bolivar Trask.
Originally published December 13, 2013. Updated April 11, 2018.
