Jennifer Lawrence has revealed the upcoming superhero epic X-Men: Apocalypse will mark her final turn in the comic-book series.
Speaking to MTV at the New York premiere of her depression-era drama Serena, the 24-year-old actor confirmed she will depart the role of shape-shifting mutant Mystique once filming is complete on the 2016 film. “It is my last one, actually,” she said.
The news suggests Lawrence will soon be free of the two major Hollywood film franchises which have transported her to new levels of fame. She is also due to appear on screen as Katniss Everdeen for the final time in the blockbuster science-fiction saga Hunger Games in November.
Lawrence, who won an Oscar for her turn as a young woman struggling with neuroses in the David O Russell comedy drama Silver Linings Playbook and has also been nominated a further two times, first appeared as Mystique in 2011’s X-Men: First Class. The character, also known as Raven Darkholme, was given more screen time in well-received sequel X-Men: Days of Future Past last year (with Lawrence’s star having also risen) and is expected to take centre stage in Apocalypse.
The new film, directed once again by X-Men series stalwart Bryan Singer, is expected to centre on the titular villain, who in the comic books was the first mutant human, born more than 5,000 years ago. In the most famous instalment, 1995’s Age of Apocalypse, the immortal emerges as the new ruler of an Earth where mutants have enslaved their human counterparts. Oscar Isaac will play the villain in the film version, which is expected to be set in the 1980s.
Lawrence is not the only member of the X-Men who may be leaving the series. Nicholas Hoult, who plays blue furry mutant Beast, told E! Online at last week’s SXSW festival that he was signed on for just one more movie: Apocalypse, though he said he would consider returning to the role for the right script.
The new film, which debuts in May 2016, will see Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy reprising their roles as warring mutants Magneto and Professor X, with newcomers including Game of Thrones’ Sophie Turner as a young Jean Grey and Alexandra Shipp as a youthful Storm. Those roles were played by Famke Janssen and Halle Berry in earlier X-Men films.
