After all the time-travelling shenanigans Days Of Future Past, the next instalment in the X-Men franchise looks to be starting from scratch - and it's also going to be losing one of its biggest stars. Along with totally recasting a lot of its principal actors, the upcoming X-Men: Apocalypse will also serve as a swansong for Jennifer Lawrence. The Hunger Games actress has played the shape-shiftng siren Mystique since prequel film First Class, but it looks like she's about to hang up her...er...well, she doesn't tend to wear a whole lot in these films. "It is my last one, actually," she said when asked about the next part of the X-Men franchise. Given that, not long before the release of Days Of Future Past (in which her character plays a key role) there were rumours that Lawrence might star in a Mystique spin-off film, that's all the more surprising. Then again, given how quickly her star appears to be rising, she probably doesn't need to pay the bills by getting her kit off and being Smurfed up any more. Lawrence dropped the bombshell - in no uncertain terms but without much clarification - during the première of her new film Serena, where she stars opposite her Silver Linings Playbook co-lead Bradley Cooper. X-Men: Apocalypse is due to begin shooting next month for a May 27, 2016 release date. The movie will be bookended by two new X-Men spin-off films: Deadpool, starring Ryan Reynolds, is out in February of that year, and Channing Tatum's Gambit will take a bow, chérie, in October 2016.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
