Rose Byrne was one of several X-Men: First Class cast members to get the axe when the franchise jumped ahead a decade for last year’s X-Men: Days of Future Past, but she’ll be back for more mutant superhero action when the franchise returns in 2016, as she’s officially signed on to reprise her role of CIA agent Moira MacTaggert in X-Men: Apocalypse.Â
Last time we saw MacTaggert, she had successfully aided our titular mutant team in stopping Kevin Bacon from kickstarting World War III, but soon after had her memory erased by Charles Xavier. That thankfully won’t stop her from popping up again when Apocalypse rolls around, and according to writer/producer Simon Kinberg, she’ll have a big role to play:
“She’s a significant character in the movie. We ended First Class with Charles having wiped portions of her memory of her experience with the X-Men. They are, essentially, strangers to her when she meets them.”
Apocalypse will take place in the 1980s, twenty years after the events of First Class. Kinberg was unfortunately mum about how Byrne’s character will get involved with the X-Men again, but did hint that her relationship with Xavier will be explored further:
“It’s certainly a rich relationship that we started to dig into in First Class, and would like to mine more in this one.”
The X-Men franchise could use more strong human characters, so I’m happy to hear that Byrne will be back. She’ll be fighting for screentime with a pretty extensive cast though, which includes returning players James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, Hugh Jackman, Nicholas Hoult, and Evan Peters, along with series newcomers Channing Tatum, Oscar Isaac, Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan, and Alexandra Shipp .
Directed by Bryan Singer, X-Men: Apocalypse blasts into theaters on May 27th, 2016.
