X-Men: James McAvoy Teases His Return as Professor X

With Hugh Jackman set to say his final farewell to the X-Men franchise early next month with the release of Logan, 20th Century Fox’s cinematic mutant universe is about to enter into an entirely new era of films. Already, the studio is hard at work on bringing a Deadpool sequel to the big screen, along with a New Mutants film that’s said to be a mix between John Hughes and Stephen King, which should make it stand out fairly clearly from the rest of the X-Men films. In addition to both of those projects, Fox is also working on bringing the next installment in the main X-Men saga to the big screen, with X-Men: Supernova.

While not many details about Supernova have been officially confirmed as of yet, it is said to take place in the ’90s and include various elements from the iconic Dark Phoenix comic book storyline. Just recently, Sophie Turner said that she will be reprising her role as Jean Grey in the film as well, making her the first and only cast member officially confirmed to be returning for Supernova so far.

She’s not the only one gearing up for a return to the X-Men universe, though, with James McAvoy teasing a possible, upcoming return in his latest Instagram post. Joking that he had dinner with the man busy having a “multi-generational three-way relationship with two professors” last night, the post features an image of McAvoy and writer/producer Simon Kinberg together, before McAvoy goes on to say he can’t “wait for this summer.” Take a look for yourself below:

Dinner last night with the man who’s in a multi generational three way relationship with two professors.thanks for dinner @simondavidkinberg and @hutch.parker ,I can’t wait for the summer. A post shared by @jamesmcavoyrealdeal on Feb 19, 2017 at 11:18pm PST

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Now, McAvoy has been rumored to be appearing in both Supernova and New Mutants, both of which are set to begin filming later this year, so it’s not especially clear which film McAvoy may be hinting at in the post. However, based on Professor X’s expanded role in the First Class generation of films, it would seem more likely that he’d be referring to Supernova, especially since Kinberg’s much more involved creatively in Supernova than he is in New Mutants. This also comes following a recent report saying that Supernova is set to begin filming in the middle of June this year, which would fit in well with the summer start date that McAvoy is hinting at here.

Out of all of the new cast members in the franchise, McAvoy’s emerged as one of the more beloved and respected by fans, with many calling his portrayal of Charles Xavier one of the best parts of First Class, Days of Future Past, and even X-Men: Apocalypse. So whenever he does make his return to the universe, whether it be in Supernova or New Mutants, it’ll likely be received with excitement from fans and critics of the franchise. Especially if McAvoy’s return means he gets to take part in some form or another in a revamped adaptation of the Dark Phoenix storyline, which fans have been asking for the X-Men films to retry ever since the disappointing results of X-Men: The Last Stand back in 2006.

NEXT: 15 Things You Didn’t Know About the Phoenix Force