"You. You'd make a perfect blue hairy mutant. You'll look great in fangs," isn't the sort of casting call Kodi Smit-McPhee ever thought he'd probably get.
In something of a backhanded compliment, X-Men: Apocalypse director Bryan Singer has taken to Instagram to announce that Smit-McPhee will play a young, fuzzy Nightcrawler in his next X-Men instalment due 2016.
Smit-McPhee, who played the boy in The Road, and more recently starred as Alexander in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, joins a returning cast of James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender (whom Smit-McPhee is currently working with on Western Slow West), Jennifer Lawrence, and Nicholas Hoult. Nightcrawler is one of several 'young' X-Men to be confirmed for the title, including Alexandra Shipp as Storm, Sophie Turner as Jean Grey and Tye Sheridan as Cyclops - with the fledgling band set to take on Oscar Isaac's titular Apocalypse.
Singer is no stranger to the Nightcrawler character, casting Alan Cumming as the teleporting Kurt Wagner in 2003's X2. Whether he'll stick to the original character's Germanic routes or go down a different route for the film's "parallel world" storyline is yet to be seen.
Due to start filming in April, X-Men: Apocalypse should bound into cinemas in May 2016. We'll keep you posted on any further mutant developments as soon as they emerge.
(Images: Rex; Wiki Commons)