Casting is well underway for X-Men: Apocalypse, most recently the news that Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes’ Kodi Smit-McPhee will be bamfing into our hearts as Nightcrawler, the teleporting mutant with a severe case of Catholic guilt. Variety says that Smit-McPhee joins returning cast members Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, and Michael Fassbender (and, presumably, James McAvoy as Charles Xavier). Game Of Thrones’ Sophie Turner was also recently cast as a younger Jean Grey in the upcoming X-Men entry, which is set in the ’80s and pits the heroes against the mutant supervillain Apocalypse.
Variety also confirms an earlier report that neither Patrick Stewart nor Ian McKellen will be reprising their respective roles as “first generation” Professor X and Magneto, despite Stewart’s recent comments that McKellen would be back. You can’t really blame these guys for not being sure which X-Men movies they’re going to be in, though, considering how busy they are with their social media charm offensive. Besides, we’re talking about the time-jumping, reality-rebooting X-Men franchise, so it’s anyone’s guess who’ll show up in an alternate-future cameo or buried in a post-credits stinger. X-Men: Apocalypse hits theaters on May 17, 2016.