Given how in demand Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, Nicholas Hoult and James McAvoy are outside the X-Men franchise, and the fact that their contracts are up after next year’s Apocalypse, it makes sense that they may all be headed elsewhere once their latest mission is completed. Asked by MTV on a red carpet about that very subject, Lawrence has confirmed that she, at least, considers Apocalypse her last X-Men movie{
While the story of Magneto (Fassbender) and Lawrence’s Mystique is reportedly a big part of the new film’s story, there’s also scope for Bryan Singer and co. to start wrapping it up. And given the amount of new mutants – younger versions of Cyclops, Storm, Jean Grey, Nightcrawler and more – introduced this time, it already feels like the filmmakers are laying the groundwork for the likes of Magneto, Mystique, Beast and Professor X to take a back seat to the others, or at least drastically reduce their screentime. Or there is always the chance that the roles will be recast.
So it would appear that Apocalypse – which finds the mutants in the 1980s battling Oscar Isaac’s incredibly powerful villain – might be the swan song for one or more of the **First Class **cast. With Rose Byrne, Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Alexandra Shipp among those aboard, X-Men: Apocalypse is gearing up to start shooting next month in preparation for a May 19, 2016 UK release date.