Fox’s casting directors certainly had an idea of what they were getting into when they cast a post-"Winter’s Bone" Jennifer Lawrence in "X-Men: First Class," but even they probably couldn’t have anticipated that the young actress playing Mystique in their superhero reboot would explode to become one of the biggest and best-liked stars around, and an Oscar-winner to boot. That’s why you lock people into multi-film contracts, kids.
It’s no surprise that Lawrence has become increasingly crucial to the franchise, with a bumped-up role in this year’s big hit "X-Men: Days Of Future Past," and talks of getting her own spin-off, and according to The Hollywood Reporter, looks to be front-and-center of the next movie in the series. "X-Men: Apocalypse" is gearing up to shoot next April, and according to the trade, the script is being "crafted around" Lawrence’s Mystique and Michael Fassbender‘s Magneto, with their characters’ romance being a particular focus.
With "First Class" being Magneto-centric, and "Days Of Future Past" revolving around James McAvoy‘s Charles, it makes sense for Lawrence to get her moment in the sun with "Apocalypse," and to focus on her chemistry with Fassbender, which is plentiful, even if previous movies haven’t yet capitalized on that entirely.
We were pleasantly surprised when "Days Of Future Past" didn’t turn out to be a hot mess, so hopefully director Bryan Singer and writer Simon Kinberg will be able to juggle the Magneto/Mystique love story with the expansive cast (Nicholas Hoult and Evan Peters will both be returning), and the titular supervillain, who Tom Hardy is being courted to play. We’ll find out when the movie opens on May 27th, 2016.