X-Men was the franchise that set the tide of superhero movies in full swing toward the glory they hold in today’s world. However, after the initial movies revolving around mutants led by Professor X, the descendants of a torch-bearing franchise could not impress us as much as their ancestors did. One such movie was X-Men: Apocalypse. It was an attempt to bring the animated X-Men series to life in a live-action adaptation. It had potential, but it was left unexplored even though X-Men Apocalypse had a star-studded cast. So, let’s look at the movie’s cast and characters.
1. James McAvoy (Professor X )
If we are talking about X-Men, we can’t talk enough about how perfect of a cast James Mcavoy was as a younger Professor X. We saw an older version of him in the initial X-Men movies, and for some reason, it seems that it actually is Mcavoy who has grown older. The movie revolves around an all-powerful mutant named En Sabah Nur, trying to take over the world since to him the world seems to be corrupted and lost.
Professor X plays a quite vital role in this movie. En Sabah Nur abducts Professor X to use his telepathic abilities to turn all mutants against their human counterparts. In the climax, we get to see an epic fight sequence between Professor X and En Sabah Nur, which is well done.
2. Michael Fassbender (Magneto)
X-Men: Apocalypse is the movie that introduces us to a Magneto who is trying to leave his horrible past behind, building a life for himself. He now has a wife and a daughter and has been truly happy for a while now, however, his happiness is short-lived.
He instinctively uses his powers to save a co-worker from being killed. The people who saw this happen reported it to the authorities and the cops captured his wife and daughter. In an attempt to make Erik surrender, one of the cops killed both his wife and daughter sending him off on a dark path once again as a horseman for En Sabah Nur. However, by the end of the movie, he reclaims himself and helps fight the X-Men against En Sabah Nur.
3. Oscar Issac (Apocalypse)
Oscar Issac plays the antagonist of this movie, who is a 5000-year-old all-powerful mutant trying to take over the world. If we talk about acting and screenplay, Oscar Issac is a commendable actor (as we have seen in Moon Knight) who successfully portrayed this role as well with his top-notch acting skills.
Even though the movie didn’t do that well, it is an absolute delight to witness Issac as such a powerful villain with so much character to it.
4. Nicholas Hoult (Hank McCoy)
Nicholas Hoult’s role as Hank McCoy has been a titular role in the X-Men movies. If Professor X is the brains behind the X-Men, Hank is the one who turns what Professor X thinks into reality. Hank is the one who designed the famous X-Men Jet and is also responsible for taking care of all the technical needs of the X-Men. We get to see him in almost every movie from both the timelines that run in the X-Men universe.
5. Jennifer Lawrence (Mystique)
Raven or Mystique has been one of the central characters of the X-Men universe since the dawn of the movie in the year 2000. In the first X-Men movie, which cast Rebecca Romijn as Mystique, we see her as a rather negative character, but in the later projects (with Lawrence), we get a broader idea of how Raven came to be called Mystique and how she started working for Magneto leaving Charles Xavier’s side.
In X-Men: Apocalypse, we see Raven in a rather positive role, where she helps the X-Men fight against En Sabah Nur and tries to talk Magneto out of helping him as well.
6. Rose Byrne (Moira McTaggart)
The character of Moira McTaggert makes a second appearance after X-Men: First Class in Apocalypse. In X-Men First Class, you might remember seeing Professor X develop romantic feelings toward Moira. However, by the end of the movie, he wipes her memory of being with Charles to ensure the safety of his team and his school.
In X-Men: Apocalypse, Moira and Charles cross paths once again, and later in the movie, Charles returns her memories reminding her of everything that had happened before.
7. Evan Peters (Peter Maximoff)
Appearing for the first time in X-Men: Days of Future Past, Peter Maximoff claims to be the son of Magneto. Peter is the X-Men version of Quicksilver, which is quite different from its Avengers counterpart released later in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Peter or Quicksilver is a speedster who is widely renowned for the evergreen rescue scene where he saves everyone from the explosion in Xavier’s school in X-Men: Apocalypse. He plays an important role in the fight against En Sabah Nur in this movie.
8. Josh Helman (Col. William Stryker)
In the comic run of X-Men, Col. William Stryker is the one responsible for giving Wolverine his signature metallic claws and adamantium bones as a result of an experiment to make mutant soldiers. In timeline A of X-Men, we get to see an alternate version of Stryker (played by Danny Huston) who injects Logan’s body with Adamantium in X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
In this movie, Stryker captures the mutants after En Sabah Nur uses Charles’ powers to cause worldwide nuclear disarmament.
9. Sophie Turner (Jean Grey)
X-Men: Apocalypse shows us the extent of Jean Grey’s powers in its final minutes. In previous X-Men projects set in timeline A of the X-Men universe, Jean already had the Dark Phoenix force inside her. Jean was shown totally under the control of the Dark Phoenix Force in X-Men: The Last Stand and under its influence she even killed Professor X.
In this timeline, Timeline B, Jean has the Phoenix Force and is gradually being corrupted by it. We see the full extent of her powers when she singlehandedly kills En Sabah Nur using her powers.
10. Tye Sheridan (Cyclops)
Scott Summers, or Cyclops, was brought to the screen for the first time in X-Men, released in 2000 by James Marsden. However, when the timeline changed after the events of X-Men: Days of Future Past, the cast was also changed.
In the later X-Men Projects, Tye Sheridan was cast as Scott Summers. The fans of Cyclops didn’t take this recasting very well but if we talk about the way he carried out this role, Tye Sheridan did a decent job playing Cyclops.
11. Lucas Till (Havok)
Reprising his role from X-Men: First Class, we see Lucas Till play the role of Scott Summers’ older brother, Alex who was a part of the original X-Men team. He was given the name of Havok for his unique superhuman abilities to quite literally wreak havoc.
However, X-Men: Apocalypse is the last time we get to see Havok since he dies in an attempt to save Professor X from being captured by En Sabah Nur and his horsemen.
12. Kodi Smit-McPhee (Nightcrawler)
The first appearance of Nightcrawler was in X2: X-Men United, the sequel of X-Men (2000). The role of Kurt Wagnor was played by Alan Cumming. This adaptation of Nightcrawler was highly appreciated for being up to mark with the comic book representation of the character.
However, Nightcrawler was recast for his appearance in X-Men: Apocalypse with Kodi Smit-McPhee taking up the reins. This, according to the fanbase, was a total downgrade to the character of Nightcrawler as compared to Cumming’s portrayal of him.
13. Ben Hardy (Angel)
Tom Hardy plays one of the four horsemen of En Sabah Nur called Angel. He got this name for pretty obvious reasons. Angel first appeared at the beginning of the movie where he was being made to fight in cage fights. He fought against Nightcrawler and got his wings damaged. En Sabah Nur used the pain and anger inside him for losing his wings to make Angel join him after granting him metallic wings.
14. Alexandra Shipp (Storm)
In the comic run of X-Men, Storm or Ororo Munroe is said to be one of the most powerful mutants in the world for her unique set of powers, enabling her to bend the weather to her will. However, in this movie we see her become one of En Sabah Nur’s horsemen initially but later on, just like Magneto, she switches sides joining the X-Men against him. By the end of the movie, we get to see her become a part of the new team of X-Men.
15. Olivia Munn (Psylocke)
Psylocke is another horsemen of En Sabah Nur, however, we don’t get to see a lot of her since her screen time is pretty short. If we talk about Psylocke in the comics, she is easily one of the most awesome mutants in the X-Men universe. But after the X-Men: Apocalypse movie, we don’t get to see her in any of the future X-Men projects.
Ajith Kumar
