Although there has been a lot of speculation as to whether James McAvoy will be featured as Professor X in 20th Century Fox’s New Mutants, it seems that Anya Taylor-Joy has possibly confirmed that McAvoy will indeed make an appearance.
Given McAvoy’s portrayal of a young Professor X in recent films X-Men: First Class, X-Men: Days of Future Class, and X-Men: Apocalypse, it has been suspected that he may appear in this upcoming film. In a recent interview with Super Hero Hype for the film Split, when Taylor-Joy was asked if if she hoped to reunite with her Split co-star James McAvoy (specifically in New Mutants as Professor X), she replied, “I mean, I think James is already a part of it, isn’t he?”
But this isn’t the first time the subject of Doctor X has been brought up.
In a May 2016 interview with Collider, producer Simon Kinberg confirmed that Professor X would indeed be in the script, (assuming that this aspect has remained throughout development). He stated,”right now, as the movie exists, Professor X will be a part of a New Mutants movie.”
Directed by Josh Boone (Fault in Our Stars), with a script by Boone, Knate Lee, Scott Neustadter, and Michael H. Weber, the film is based on the original comic book series. The story will follow a group of teenage mutants, who are heroes in training in the Marvel Universe, specifically at Professor Xavier’s School for the Gifted (which is why it makes sense Professor X would be involved). When Boone initially pitched the New Mutants idea to Kinberg and 20th Century Fox, he used comic book strips that mapped out the trilogy using panels from the original issue.
Along with Taylor-Joy, Maisie Williams is also set to star in the film.
New Mutants is expected to start filming in the next few months, but doesn’t have a release date yet.