James McAvoy Up For More ‘X-Men’, Praises ‘Logan’

Talking with Erik Davis while on the promotional rounds for M. Night Shyamalan’s Split, James McAvoy was enthusiastic about continuing to appear in X-Men films as Charles Xavier aka Professor X, a role he’s played three times, most recently in last summer’s X-Men: Apocalypse. Check out the video below.

“If they offer me a really good part, I’ll be in. If it’s not a really good part, I’ll be like ‘Eh, I’ll think about.’ But I’ve always loved playing Charles and I’ve always had pretty interesting things to do as Charles, so if that continues, then yeah, of course I’ll take part.”

Patrick Stewart stars as the older version of the character in what is likely the final time in the upcoming Logan, which is also Hugh Jackman’s final time as Logan aka Wolverine, both characters they first embodied in 2000’s X-Men 17 years ago. James McAvoy first appeared as young Charles in the 2011 prequel X-Men: First Class. He said it looks “brilliant” and he’s jealous he’s “not old enough to play Charles like that yet, but I was like ‘Oh, what a great, brilliant idea.”

The future of the X-films has been murky as of late. While Deadpool was a runaway success, Apocalypse didn’t perform very well, leading to franchise steward Bryan Singer to step away to focus on his Freddy Mercury biopic starring Rami Malek and a new adaptation of Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. The next entry may well be director Josh Boone’s The New Mutants (possibly titled X-Men: The New Mutants), of which MvAvoy is heavily rumored to be a part. Drew McWeeny reported the earliest casting scooplets for that film last spring. Meanwhile, Fox has moved quickly to capitalize on a Deadpool sequel (with a third film introducing X-Force planned).

Logan hits theaters March 3, The New Mutants sometime in 2018. James McAvoy can be seen next in the psychological thriller Split, hitting theaters January 20 and alongside Charlize Theron in David Leitch’s spy actioner The Coldest City, hitting theaters August 4.

Source: Erik Davis