James Devaney/GC ImagesSorry, X-Men fans, you will probably not see Sir Patrick Stewart in the next sequel, X-Men: Apocalypse. Or anyone else who's not part of the "next generation" of cast members, or rather, the "first class."
In an interview on Larry King Now posted online on Wednesday, the 74-year-old confirmed he will not reprise his role of Professor Xavier, who he played in the original trilogy and most recently, in the 2014 film X-Men: Days of Future Past. And then he delivered another piece of heartcrushing news.
"Nor Sir Ian McKellen, either," he said. "I learned quite a lot more about it last night and it...it is...looking very much at the earlier lives of all our characters, so I don't think we'll be making an appearance."
Director Bryan Singer, who also helmed X-Men: Days of Future Past and the first two films in the original trilogy, has not commented.
McKellen played Xavier's childhood friend-turned-enemy Magneto in the original trilogy and the most recent film as well. James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender played their younger counterparts in X-Men: Days of Future Past, which incorporated time travel, and its predecessor, X-Men: First Class, the start of a new film prequel series that depicts the main mutants when they were younger and starting to control their powers and form alliances.
The new film is set for release in May 2016 and stars McAvoy and Fassbender as well as returning actors Jennifer Lawrence and Nicholas Hoult. In addition, Evan Peters reprises his role as Quicksilver, following his debut in X-Men: Days of Future Past.
In September, producer Simon Kinberg said in a Yahoo! Movies video that X-Men: Apocalypse will not feature stars of the original trilogy, adding that the movie "really follows the stories of the...First Class X-Men—Jen Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, Nick Hoult and the others of that generation of X-Men."
He said the original actors could "perhaps" appear in a future movie in the franchise, adding, "but in Apocalypse, it will really be the continuation of, let's say, past of Days of Future Past."
"If we included some of the original X-Men, like Storm and Jean and Scott and others in Apocalypse, yeah, we would have to recast them because Apocalypse takes place a good 20 years before X1," he said, referring to the 2000 film X-Men.
X-Men: Days of Future Past featured original trilogy stars such as Halle Berry as Storm, James Marsden as Cyclops, Famke Janssen as Jean Grey, Ellen Page as Kitty Pryde and Hugh Jackman as Wolverine.
"It'd be very hard to do," Kinberg continued. "Halle and Famke and Jimmy and others have done such wonderful jobs of bringing those characters to life and they're so identified, those actors, with the parts now, so it would be a tall task but I also would've said before First Class that there would be no way we could find actors who can stand alongside Ian McKellan and Patrick Stewart and I think we managed to with Michael and James, finding their own interpretations of the characters, not doing an impersonation."
X-Men: Apocalypse also stars franchise newcomers Channing Tatum as the mutant Gambit (who is also getting his own spinoff) and Oscar Isaac as the title supervillain, also known as En Sabah Nur or "the first one." He is an ancient mutant with superhuman strength and intellect, with shape-shifting and telekinetic powers and the ability to project and absorb energy, regenerate and heal other mutants.