Idris Elba Eyed For Titular Villain Role In X-Men: Apocalypse?

X-Men: Apocalypse – director Bryan Singer’s hotly anticipated follow-up to this year’s X-Men: Days of Future Past – won’t hit theaters until summer 2016, but with production expected to start sometime early next year, we’re already getting a wave of potential new casting information. This past week we received word that Singer was looking at a handful of actors for younger versions of Cyclops and Jean Grey, and now we’ve got an update on who may play the titular villain himself.

Last we heard, 20th Century Fox was looking at The Dark Knight Rises star Tom Hardy for the role of Apocalypse, an ancient, immortal mutant with powers that definitely suit his name, but a new report suggests that that may not be the case. According to TheWrap’s Jeff Sneider, three names are being tossed around for the role, and Hardy isn’t one of them. While he doesn’t tell us who the three names are, he does drop this little hint:

“We heard him say the word ‘apocalypse’ a lot last year.”

It doesn’t take much deductive reasoning to come to the conclusion that Sneider is talking about none other than Idris Elba, who gave a rousing speech promising that, “Today, we are cancelling the apocalypse!” in last year’s Pacific Rim. The only question is, will Elba – who lands on countless fan wishlists for a variety of roles, from James Bond to Green Lantern – even be able to play Apocalypse, considering he’s already contracted to play another Marvel character?