18-year-old Aussie Kodi Smit-McPhee has joined the X-Men franchise in the role of a young mutant Nightcrawler.
Director Bryan Singer made the announcement via Instagram, welcoming the Aussie to the latest X-Men installment, X-Men: Apocalypse, which will focus on the origins of the mutants set in the early 80s.
Smit-McPhee is coming off roles in last year’s Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, as a troubled teen in All the Wilderness and a lead part in the Nine’s TV miniseries Gallipoli.
The blue-skinned Nightcrawler, aka Kurt Wagner, is back after a lone appearance in X2: X-Men United, where the Alan Cumming-played Nightcrawler launches an attack on the President in a memorable White House scene (below).
Full plot and cast details for the latest X-Men instalment are currently cloudy, but Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine and Channing Tatum as Gambit are expected join the confirmed Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy in lead roles.
“I am humbled and honored to be joining this incredible project and to be able to tell the story of the well-respected young mutant Nightcrawler,” Smit-McPhee said via Instagram. “Thank you @Bryanjaysinger, and the passionate Xmen fans. @20thcenturyfox #Nightcrawler #XmenApocalypse.”
X-Men: Apocalypse is currently pencilled in for a late-May 2016 release date.
Photo: Jerod Harris/Getty Images.
