Ty Sheridan in JOE (Lionsgate)
If you are a nerd and you don’t follow director Bryan Singer on Twitter, you should be ashamed of yourself. The man delivers the goods and then some! His latest gift to fans was revealing the three actors set to portray some of the biggest mutants in his upcoming film X-MEN APOCALYPSE; Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Storm. Here is the Tweet:
Meet our new and brilliant young mutants: @Alexshipppp as #Storm @SophieT as #JeanGrey and @TyeSheridan as #Cyclops. #XmenApocalypse
— Bryan Singer (@BryanSinger) January 23, 2015
First, let’s start with the man of the hour Scott Summers, Also known as Cyclops. The first member and leader of the X-Men will be played by 18 year old Tye Sheridan. He’s recently proved that he’s a damn fine actor in the films MUD and JOE so I’m not as nervous as I should be. But being the enormously huge Cyclops fan that I am, I am going to remain a bit hesitant. I’ve only seen Sheridan in those two roles and they were both pretty similar characters. APOCALYPSE will be a great opportunity for Sheridan to prove he has some range as an actor and I can actually see this working if done right. And yes, I’ve been covering his eyes with a pen in every picture I can find of him online to see how he will look. And I guarantee that you are going to do that now as well…it’s ok…I’ll wait. Yeah, sure I can see it. Not quite the defined chin I was hoping for, but it could work.
X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST Movie Review
Sophie Turner in GAME OF THRONES (HBO)
Next up is Cyclops’ main squeeze Jean Grey who will be played by Sophie Turner who most will recognize as Sansa Stark in HBO’s GAME OF THRONES. This seems like a pretty natural choice considering her rise in popularity and acting talents. Her iconic flowing red hair doesn’t hurt either. While I admittedly would have preferred Saoirse Ronan (HANNA) for this role, I think Turner is a fine choice. But I’m I little bias because I rank HANNA as one of my favorite films of all time and she absolutely owned that role as I’m sure she would have with Jean Grey if given the chance.
Alexandra Shipp in AALIYAH: THE PRINCESS OF R&B (Lifetime)
And last, but not least we have the relative unknown Alexandra Shipp portraying the goddess of the elements Storm. While I definitely haven’t seen her in anything to have an opinion one way or the other, she looks the part and I have faith that Singer and crew know what they are doing. I look forward to see what she does with the character. Sidetone: please don’t talk about striking down toads with lightening…that still leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
At the end of the day I’m just relieved that these characters will be back in action in the cinematic universe. And Singer is obviously going with a very young cast here and I like that. Feels fresh. I can’t tell you what a gift it was seeing these characters on screen again in X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST and the X-Men films just haven’t felt right without their presence. Overall, I just have warm and good feelings about this sequel and having these characters involved is beyond exciting. I’m sure more details will arise soon and you can be damn sure I’ll be here to cover it all.
X-MEN APOCALYPSE hits theaters May 27th 2015
