Halle Berry may have made a return as Storm in the modern storyline of X-Men: Days of Future Past, but it’s been quite some time since Cyclops and Jean Grey appeared in the X-Men movie universe in any significant capacity. That will change in upcoming sequel X-Men: Apocalypse, which will take the X-Men into the 1980s and reintroduce younger versions of Professor X’s steadfast companions.
The matter of who will be playing these characters has been the subject of many rumors, since James Marsden and Famke Janssen are now a little too old to be playing teenagers. Actors that have reportedly been tested for the roles include Saoirse Ronan, Taron Egerton, Chloe Grace Moretz, Ben Hardy and Zendaya Coleman, but now the three new cast members have officially been revealed.
Director Bryan Singer announced in a tweet that young Scott Summers a.k.a Cyclops will be played by Tye Sheridan (Mud), Sophie Turner (Game of Thrones) will be starring as young Jean Grey and Alexandra Shipp (Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B) will take on the role of young Ororo Munroe a.k.a Storm. All three actors have been mentioned before in screen testing rumors and, despite being various shades of newcomer, seem like solid choices to play the part of the fledgling mutants.
Meet our new and brilliant young mutants: @Alexshipppp as #Storm @SophieT as #JeanGrey and @TyeSheridan as #Cyclops.
#XmenApocalypse— Bryan Singer (@BryanSinger) January 23, 2015
Sheridan made his onscreen debut in Terrence Malick’s 2011 film The Tree of Life, and gained further attention when he starred alongside Matthew McConnaughey in the critically-acclaimed coming of age drama Mud. Turner is obviously best known for her regular role as Sansa Stark in HBO’s hugely successful historical fantasy Game of Thrones, which was also her first screen role.
Shipp might need a little more introduction as until recently she was best known for appearing in the Nickelodeon show House of Anubis. At 23 she is a little older than the other two actors, who are both 18, but she could still easily pass for a teenager. X-Men: Apocalypse will mark the first time that any of these newcomers have starred in a major studio blockbuster.
Are you happy with this casting announcement, or do you wish that these roles had gone to some of the other actors who were rumored? Sound off on this news in the comments.
X-Men: Apocalypse arrives in theaters on May 27th, 2016.
