May 11--James McAvoy has accepted the inevitable: He has morphed into the final form of X-Men character Professor Charles Francis Xavier, while the original Xavier -- Sir Patrick Stewart -- watched gleefully from the phone.
When the X-Men movie series started, lovable lobster Stewart was cast in the crucial role of Professor X, leader of the X-Men and Dean of Xavier's school for gifted Youngsters. The professor is known in the comics for his impressive telekinesis skills, a steady hand (usually pointed at his temple) and his lack of hair -- a trait that Stewart mimicked in the first couple of films .
However, when McAvoy took over the role of Professor X in the origin story, set in the swinging '60s -- way before he was head of anything -- young Charles still had hair. The McAvoy films would constantly foreshadow the joke about Xavier's soon-to-be-eradicated locks, and now in "X-Men: Apocalypse," McAvoy is finally ready to make the jump.
So current "X-Men" director Bryan Singer called Stewart and captured the moment on FaceTime, connecting the professors. "Why don't you save locks of it and send it to me," Stewart joked. Honestly, we hope they did.
This shave has been a long time coming, and it should be remembered in mutant cinematic history with a hair plaque or something, right up there next to Rogue's face-framing streaks.
