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Casting Couch: X-Men – Apocalypse

By | March 5th, 2014
Posted in Columns | 2 Comments

Welcome back to Casting Couch, our weekly feature in which I cast movies you’ll probably see with casts you probably won’t. In this week’s installment, I’ll be taking a look at the announced X-Men: Apocalypse film, in which we get all hypothetical about who would even be in the film (since, as we know, Fox kind of likes to just throw mutants at the wall and see what sticks).

So, with this in mind, lets look at the director.

Director – Bryan Singer

Spoiler alert: I didn’t cast this.

Bryan Singer will direct Apocalypse unless something drastic happens between now and then, because Apocalypse is apparently part of Singer’s plan. Singer has done a decent job somewhat guiding the X-Men film series as a producer, and the second film was particularly great. Plus, now that Fox has Mark Millar and is doing a much more concerted effort to have an X-Men film universe on par with Marvel’s Cinematic Universe, I think keeping the ship steady and leaving Singer at the helm is wise.

Unless Days of Future Past is horrible. Then I’ll recant everything I just said.

With that in consideration, we have to keep a few things in mind — specifically, that this proposed Apocalypse film is most likely going to involve the First Class crew. There may be more time travel involved (most definitely, if my pitch is considered), but we’re going to be keeping that aspect of the film untouched; Fassbender will still be Magneto, McAvoy will be Xavier, and Jennifer Lawrence still won’t have won the Oscar for Best Actress this year.

So lets take a look.

Apocalypse – Jason Momoa

If you’re reading this column and you’re not aware of how much I love Game of Thrones (the show and the book, take your pick), then this cast probably seems out of left field. But if you watched Game of Thrones Season One and saw Jason Momoa as Khal Drogo, then I’d guess you have a good idea why I picked him as Apocalypse.

Chances are that Apocalypse will be largely CGI and created via motion capture. However, there’s also a possibility that we’ll see Apocalypse as he was, when he was the world’s first mutant, and to make it believable we should have an actor capable of portraying En Sabh Nur. I think Momoa fits the bill quite nicely, despite not being Egyptian himself (he was born in Hawaii).

Mr. Sinister – Michael Sheen

A character often closely associated with Apocalypse (especially in the “Age Of”), I think it’s about time Mr. Sinister gets a role on film. One of the X-Men’s most famous foes and certainly one of the most intriguing, it’s actually strange that we’ve not seen him appear yet. So for our Apocalypse film, we’re bringing in Sinister to act essentially as the catalyst for Apocalypse’s arrival at all, and we’re getting the fantastically talented Michael Sheen to do it. Sheen has shown in many roles that he can be cold and calculating as often as he is affable (and not just in those Twilight films I didn’t see), and he could certainly bring to life the most recent incarnation of Sinister as written by Kieron Gillen.

Now, Mr. Sinister is a tough cast because it’s difficult to decide which way to skew it. All things considered, Nathanial Essex is quite old, coming from the 19th Century. So with that in mind, I almost considered Timothy Dalton for the role, who I believe would make a wonderful Mr. Sinister. However, given the circumstances of Fassbender and McAvoy as Magneto and Xavier respectfully, it felt more appropriate to skew towards someone their age — in which case, Michael Sheen fits the bill.

Archangel – Jim Sturgess

For those that saw X-Men 3, you’ll probably remember that Ben Foster already appeared as Warren Worthington III. However, with no disrespect to Foster (who can play a frightening character, sure — see Alpha Dog), I don’t think he’s intimidating enough to truly capture the horror that is a horseman of Apocalypse, and his most vicious one at that.

So with that in mind, we’ve recast Foster with Jim Sturgess, who is somewhat of a similar build to Foster and could easily fit into the role. Archangel is perhaps the most important character who needs to appear alongside Apocalypse, all things considered, and Sturgess has shown a very wide range of talent from his multiple roles in Cloud Atlas to his lead role in Across the Universe. I’ve not seen him be particularly brutal or evil in any roles yet, but I think he could do it quite well.

Continued below

Cable – Til Schweiger

From the stories that I remember as a kid in the 90’s Cable comic, I can’t get it out of my head that Cable and Apocalypse aren’t linked. This could offer a plot point for the film similar to Future Past, in which Cable travels back in time to prevent Apocalypse’s rise, thus actually causing it — you know, like in the 90’s comic! See how these things work?

I’ve long since tried to cast Til Schweiger in one of our Casting Couches, back when Matt and David were involved, but now with both of them gone I can finally do it! Til Schweiger is a very talented German actor, most familiar to us for his role in Inglourious Basterds, and he can very much embody the sullen, strong warrior that Cable is. If we utilize Cable as a bulldozer warrior archetype, it is very easy to see Schweiger as someone who comes back in time and takes no prisoners on his journey to destroy one of the world’s most dangerous entities.

Legion – Joe Gilgun

Legion is a longshot, I’ll grant you, but hypothetically speaking, there is potential that the Apocalypse film is in partial an “Age of Apocalypse” thing. I think it wouldn’t work, I think it’d be too off the cuff and require too much explanation that film goers wouldn’t buy in the same way comic folks just will, but I suppose if we can have Days of Future Past, you can do the same thing with Apocalypse.

And if that’s the case, then we need Xavier’s son, Legion. And while McAvoy is still young, perhaps too young to have a son in the film in the way that Legion make sense, we can just wave our hands and say “Oh, whatever, more time travel!” and cast someone I like as Legion: Joe Gilgun.

Joe Gilgun should be familiar to fans of things like This is England or Misfits or even Taken meets Escape From New York in Space, by which I mean Lockout. And if you’ve seen any of those, then you know: Joe Gilgun? The guy can play crazy. The haircut might be a bit much, but if you want someone to both capture the sheer nonsense-scope of Legion while also being a legitimate or even terrifying threat, Joe Gilgun is the perfect actor for the role.

And if we’re going to do “Age of Apocalypse” stuff, Matt insisted that I cast…

X-Man – Garrett Hedlund

X-Man never had a strong role in comics, not even when he had his own ongoing, since he was mainly an entity spun out of the “Age of Apocalypse” storyline that stuck around and then… just sort of went nowhere. X-Man was always a product of the 90’s and was always intertwined in 90’s style stories until he died, but his resurrection recently allowed the character to be revamped and made a bit more useful than he ever was. (I liked “X-Man” at the time, to be truthful.)

So if we have Sinister and “Age of Apocalypse,” then X-Man is fair game, and for him we’re going to go with Garrett Hedlund. Hedlund is relatively underrated, but I think he’s proven to have a decent range and amount of talent between the sheer techno-insanity of Tron: Legacy and a more subtle performance in Inside Llewyn Davis. I think if X-Man were to actually appear in the film, Hedlund would be able to bring a certain amount of respect and believability to the role that his existence doesn’t even really call for. And he’s not bad on the eyes either, so the whole shirtless thing of the modern incarnation works out well enough.

It’s a longshot that X-Man would be in this film, but as I said, Fox likes to just insert characters into the movie to see what works. So, hey, why not.

(Editor’s note: I, Matthew Meylikhov, lobbied for Jess to cast Stephen Amell as X-Man because Stephen Amell is awesome. Jess said no. When I argued that Amell was talented and a hunk, Jess still said no! I just wanted this on record.)


//TAGS | Casting Couch

Jess Graham

Jessica is the secret weapon behind the Multiversity Casting Couches, utilizing her vast knowledge of film and Hollywood gossip to help concoct absurdly brilliant comic book movie scenarios. When she isn't thinking about movies however, she is playing with cats, watching Futurama and pleading with George RR Martin to stop killing everyone she loves in A Song Of Ice And Fire. Feel free to follow her on Tumblr and Twitter for random odds and ends.

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