Nicholas Hoult still wonders he's part of ‘XMen' movies

NICHOLAS Hoult still thinks it’s “bizarre” that he’s part of the ‘XMen’ franchise.

The 29-year-old actor - who portrays Beast/ Hank McCoy in the franchise - was a huge fan of the movies when he was younger. He said: “It’s mad - you don’t expect that. Also, as well as ‘Lord of the Rings’ being really influential movies when I was 11 and 12, the ‘X-Men’ movies were equally so.

“So then you find yourself a couple of years down the road doing ‘Days of Future Past’ and you’re in those corridors that you grew up watching, with Hugh Jackman.

“I had to pinch myself. I was looking over thinking, ‘This is mad, I’m walking down the corridor with him and we’re going to Cerebro.’ Bizarre.

“And then you grow and have these friendships and all these things with the people involved. It’s a little family unit.”

With his fourth ‘X-Men’ movie, ‘Dark Phoenix’, released next month, Nicholas is pleased with the way his character has evolved over the years.

He told Empire magazine: “He started off as a student in that first film, ashamed of his mutant capabilities and then that changed and he became an enabler and carer for Charles, and there’s his relationships with Mystique, with Raven, and then becoming a teacher, and now in this film we take that to a different level again, where he starts to question the authority figures.

“His beliefs change, and his understanding of how things should be handled.

“Also he’s dealing with trauma. It’s a lot. That’s a really nice thing, because you grow up playing him and it also feels like it’s changing.” — BANG Showbiz