He’s been an admittedly smaller part of one of the biggest film franchises to happen along in a while, and now Twilight/New Moon thesp Edi Gathegi has grabbed a role in what Fox hopes will be a big success in itself:** X-Men: First Class.
Gathegi has signed on to play Darwin for Matthew Vaughn on First Class, which - assuming they keep to his comic origins - will see him as the mixed race (he starts out as a half-black/half-latino lad named Armando Muñoz) mutant with the power of reactive evolution. Which, in broad terms, means his body can adapt to almost any situation he finds himself in, and can cope with threats many others can’t. He’ll sprout gills if he’s stuck underwater, his skin can become fireproof if he’s burned and he can develop spontaneous night vision among other skills.
He’s joining a cast that already includes James McAvoy, Alice Eve, Michael Fassbender, Nicholas Hoult, Jennifer Lawrence, Caleb Landry Jones, Lucas Till and Kevin Bacon, playing the yet-to-be-unveiled villain of the piece.
Vaughn, who penned the script with regular collaborator Jane Goldman, will kick off shooting next month. **X-Men: First Class **will be in cinemas next June.