It doesn’t need to be said that one of the major allures of the X-Men movies is the always reliable, arresting, powerhouse one-two punch of Sir Ian McKellen and his brother-in-arms Sir Patrick Stewart. As the ever-intimidating Magneto and the ever-enigmatic Professor X, each actor brings a sophistication, indeed a maturity, to the cast of Bryan Singer’s expanding X-Men cinematic universe. They also counterbalance each other perfectly; fire fighting fire, wisdom butting heads with aggression.
For these reasons, and more, it is with no small amount of sadness that we report that McKellen and Stewart are – at least for the moment – parting ways with the X-Men franchise and will not appear in the upcoming film Apocalypse. On Larry King Live recently, Stewart stated the following:
“I was learning quite a lot more about [Apocalypse] last night, and it is going to be looking very much at the earlier lives of all our characters. And so I don’t think we’ll be making an appearance.”
This is not to say that X-Men: Apocalypse will not be the epic no-holds-barred, ballistic extravaganza that we were all expecting it would be. Although, it bears mentioning, the ol’ Brits will be sorely missed. Let’s just hope that Fassbender and McAvoy can fill the wake that they leave behind; or emerge out of it as something else entirely, something new and different, but as memorable as their forebears.
