Idris Elba X-Men: Apocalypse rumours inaccurate

UPDATE: We now know that Oscar Isaacs has been cast in the role.

X-Men: Apocalypse is on the casting trail, and yesterday The Wrap’s Jeff Sneider suggested that Idris Elba was in the running to play the titular villain.

Making an appearance on the Meet The Movie Press podcast, Sneider claimed that there are three names being considered for the role, teasing the frontrunner by revealing, “we heard him say the word ‘Apocalypse’ a lot last year”.

That seemed a fairly explicit reference to Elba, whose Pacific Rim line, “today we are cancelling the apocalypse”, went viral on social media last year, with the actor himself repeating the line on demand.

It had previously been reported that Tom Hardy was the first choice to take the part of Apocalypse, but according to Sneider he was not one of the three names being turned over by Fox.

But later in the day, it was revealed that in fact Oscar Isaac will play the villain role.

Directed by Bryan Singer and co-starring Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy and Jennifer Lawrence, X-Men: Apocalypse will open in the UK on 19 May 2016, before reaching the US on the 27th of the same month.

George Wales

George was once GamesRadar's resident movie news person, based out of London. He understands that all men must die, but he'd rather not think about it. But now he's working at Stylist Magazine.