In a potentially very bad move, it looks like X-Men: Apocalypse won’t feature two of the series’ most iconic stars, Sirs Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart.
X-Men: Apocalypse is already balancing on the edge of Reboot Land by re-casting a younger set of actors to play Storm, Jean Grey and Cyclops.
Related: Sophie Turner, Saoirse Ronan testing for young Jean Grey in X-Men: Apocalypse
Now, the franchise risks potentially alienating a large part of the original fanbase by also choosing to exclude the series’ biggest stars, Ian McKellen (Magneto) and Patrick Stewart (Charles Xavier).
“I don’t think we’ll be making an appearance,” Stewart confessed recently when speaking to Larry King, “[because] it’s going to be looking very much at the earlier lives of all our characters.”
Of course we really should have seen this coming, as X Men: Apocalypse is set in the past, back when Magneto and Charles still looked suspiciously like completely different people (namely Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy).
However, it’s not like the creators of this film don’t have complete control over the plot. Staying completely in the past, as opposed to jumping back and forth as both First Class and Days of Future Past did, means severing the connection to the original X-Men timeline completely.
And as we know that Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) actually did change the future in Days of Future Past, we have to wonder just how different this new X-Men will be from the story we love.
Unless, of course, you don’t love the original that story that much and are ready to see a new group of actors tell a fresh X-Men story? Sound off in the comments!