Oscar Isaac will play Apocalypse, an immortal mutant, in the next X-Men movie, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Isaac recently signed up for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and played King John in Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood in 2010. But it is largely in lower-budget independent films that he has made his name, winning rave reviews for his portrayals of a down-and-out musician in the Coen brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis and an unpredictable ex-con in Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive. His latest film is the awards season-friendly crime drama A Most Violent Year, opposite Jessica Chastain for director JC Chandor.
Series stalwart Bryan Singer returns to direct the new, 80s-set episdoe, titled X-Men: Apocalypse, following critical and box-office success for this year’s 70s-set Days of Future Past. Michael Fassbender once again portrays Magneto, with James McAvoy as Professor X and Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique. Producers are currently casting for new actors to portray younger versions of Cyclops and Jean Grey.
X-Men: Apocalypse 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.
Singer aims to shoot early next year for a May 2016 release date.
