X-Men: Apocalypse Will Be Jennifer Lawrence's Last X-Film

StewShearerOld

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Jan 5, 2013
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X-Men: Apocalypse Will Be Jennifer Lawrence's Last X-Film


Jennifer Lawrence will not reprise the role of Mystique after X-Men: Apocalypse.

One of the toughest things about making movies as compared to comics is the fact that while characters can persist endlessly on paper, actors grow, change and <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/139905-Hugh-Jackman-Wants-to-Keep-Playing-Wolverine-Forever>usually leave at some point. Take the X-Men movies, for instance. Up until now, the most recent series of X-films has had the good fortune to keep its principal cast together and intact. Sadly, if Fox intends to continue with the franchise after its next outing, it now looks as though it will have to move forward one actor short.

According to actor <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/jennifer%20lawrence?os=jennifer+lawrence>Jennifer Lawrence <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/x-men%20apocalypse?os=x-men+apocalypse>X-Men: Apocalypse will be her last film with the series. News of her departure emerged from an interview where Lawrence, speaking with MTV, briefly confirmed that she'll be exiting the franchise after the next movie. Lawrence, of course, plays the shape-shifting mutant Mystique and was featured prominently in both X-Men: First Class and Bryan Singer's follow-up film X-Men: Days of Future Past.

The big question, of course, is what Lawrence leaving will mean for the character Mystique. on May 27th, 2016.

Source: <a href=https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=217&v=eA8D3jG3JD4>MTV


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wulfy42

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Jan 29, 2009
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Mystique is a shapeshifter!! Who cares which actress (or even actor if you wanna go weird) plays her? With all the makeup on she could be anyone, and as for her real appearance, you hardly ever see it anyway....so just make future movies where you don't see her real appearance at all and problem solved.
 

Yopaz

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Jun 3, 2009
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wulfy42 said:
Mystique is a shapeshifter!! Who cares which actress (or even actor if you wanna go weird) plays her? With all the makeup on she could be anyone, and as for her real appearance, you hardly ever see it anyway....so just make future movies where you don't see her real appearance at all and problem solved.
Yeah, pretty much what I thought. also since she's a shapeshifter she can just turn into Jennifer Lawrence, right? Seriously though, if you're going to lose an actor or actress then a shapeshifter or an illusionist will be the easiest ones to replace.
 

Lightknight

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Nov 26, 2008
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Great, she is absolutely terrible in the role anyways so it'd be nice to have someone with more relate-able acting skills take up the bit.

I imagine she'd be easily replaceable without any concern.
 

Username Redacted

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Really? I thought her last X-Men movie was 'First Class' as she didn't seem to be actually want to be in 'Days of Future Past' and her performance/lack thereof very much reflected that. Here's to hoping she doesn't completely phone it in for 'Age of Apocalyps'. Seeing as how I'm not a teenage girl I haven't seen most of Jennifer Lawrence's work but what work of hers I have seen gets a tentative 'meh' as far as her performances go.
 

Lightknight

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ThingWhatSqueaks said:
Really? I thought her last X-Men movie was 'First Class' as she didn't seem to be actually want to be in 'Days of Future Past' and her performance/lack thereof very much reflected that. Here's to hoping she doesn't completely phone it in for 'Age of Apocalyps'. Seeing as how I'm not a teenage girl I haven't seen most of Jennifer Lawrence's work but what work of hers I have seen gets a tentative 'meh' as far as her performances go.
I'm really glad someone else saw that. She seems to be one of those actresses with a difficulty expressing any sort of emotion that's not brooding/long suffering/deadpan. I hate it when that's all any actor can pull out of his/her repertoire. Makes me wonder how much better the hunger games could have been.
 

Johnny Novgorod

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I agree she looked bored & boring in Days of Future Past. So I guess everybody wins on this one.
 

Sarge034

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I was going to come in here and ask weren't people complaining about her performance being flat, but it appears those people are already here... XD Best of wishes in her next endeavor and to whomever takes her place.
 

Scarim Coral

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Are they hinting that she will be killed of in the coming film? If not then it's not really a problem for a changed of cast for that character seeing how she is a shapeshifter.
 

The_Darkness

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Okay, I'll be the odd one out - I really liked Jennifer Lawrence in both Days of Future Past and First Class. She brought a complexity to Mystique that hadn't been there for the original trilogy.

If she's moving on from the role, then I'm still looking forward to what she can bring to Apocalypse, and I'll keep half an eye out for her future stuff. (No, I haven't watched the Hunger Games - but that's because it's a series that's somehow completely failed to grab my attention.)

As people have said, Mystique's actor is probably the easiest one to change up, given her shape-shifting. As for character death, she's actually a character who wasn't confirmed alive at the end of DoFP, so her survival could well be in question...
 

Casual Shinji

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Thank God!

I'm sure she's a nice girl, but she has the screen presence of an apple, which is better than a wet blanket I guess, but still... I'm just watching an apple on screen trying to emote.

Not that Rebecca Romijn was a briliant actress, but she gave Mystique a strong, lethal vibe even without saying a word. Lawrence's Mystique was just sorta... there. Though to be honest, the shoddy make-up quality in both First Class and Future Past didn't help her performance much either. I mean, just look at the picture in the article... I've seen cosplay Mystiques that look better.

Just get Rooney Mara for the role. ...Aw who am I kidding? Just get Rooney Mara for any role -- She needs to be in more movies.
 

Evonisia

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Jun 24, 2013
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She can demand Hunger Games money now, which means she can be a bland actress in films that aren't some of the best the Superhero genre has had to offer in recent years.

I see a similar fate befalling whoever plays the main woman from the Thor films, too.
 
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The hardest characters to recast would Xavier, Magneto and of course, Wolverine. I think the others could be switched out without too much of an issue. Saying that, it is nice for the sake of continuity to have the same actors...having Storm and Iceman come back, f.ex, was great in DoFP.

They've recast Mystique once, albeit for a younger version. But actually, seeing as she's completely blue, may well prove one of the easier characters to recast. A shame for the actress since X-Men is a huge, blockbuster franchise. Saying that, I'm sure any actor would prefer not to be typecast or pigeon-holed, so maybe moving on is a good thing too. Personally, I can't imagine why someone would want to leave a blockbuster film series, from a financial/fame PoV...but then if neither of those are an issue, why not pick the parts they wish to play? Good luck and good health to her.

The_Darkness said:
Okay, I'll be the odd one out - I really liked Jennifer Lawrence in both Days of Future Past and First Class. She brought a complexity to Mystique that hadn't been there for the original trilogy.
I don't think it's fair to credit the actress for that. It was basically the script and story that showed us a young Raven/Xavier meeting, going to uni, meeting more mutants and creating that history. While the cast are very good, any complexity is due to the nature of the first film that established a backstory (as far back as childhood/teenagehood) for the characters in question. Mystique in the original trilogy was also brilliant, but the stories weren't about them personally.
 
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Scarim Coral said:
Are they hinting that she will be killed of in the coming film? If not then it's not really a problem for a changed of cast for that character seeing how she is a shapeshifter.
Not in the slightest. The only news is that the actress won't reprise the role again after Apocalypse. They *could* kill the character, although that wouldn't make any sense in terms of continuity since Mystique is a main antagonist in the original trilogy, which takes place some decades after the FC/DoFP films chronologically. OTOH, one might argue that (the events of) DoFP specifically altered the future (so that the Sentinels were never created) so maybe she could die...though it would render the first trilogy as no longer canon/continuous.

Most likely, the actress playing Mystique will be recast or the other alternative is that the character simply doesn't appear. Both would work well with the former being no more difficult a transition than from Rebecca Romijn-Stamos (s/p?) to this lady, and the latter freeing up screentime for other fun villains we haven't met yet on-screen.

But we've got three X films to look forward to and that's a year from now, so this news is irrelevant for at least 4 years or more. As long as they make a (good!) Gambit movie, I don't care who else does what, with whom they do it and what anyone else has to say about it. :) If they got Anna Pacquin to play Rogue as Tatum's LI in that film, it would be the icing on the cake!
 

Rawbeard

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Good news. That character has been mishandled so hard, it's not even funny. Chance to refocus on other characters they can screw up.
 

Aerotrain

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Characters die and come back, are remade, redesigned, reimagined, what-ifed, rebooted and dropped into and out of teams all the time in comics and that's no surprise seeing how long some of these series have been running. If comic books heroes are gonna have any kind of enduring box-office success the public has to get used to any X-Man, Captain America, Iron Man, etc., as iconic characters that can and will have many actors playing them with different takes and styles. While RDJ might be Iron Man and Hugh Jackman might be Wolverine, the truth is, no matter how much it hurts, Iron Man and Wolverine aren't only RDJ and Hugh Jackman (sorry, Hugh.)
It was the case with James Bond, with setting and storylines being pushed forward in time to feel contemporary and characters being played by different actors, and it is the case with Batman and Superman. I have no doubt that it will happen in time in the MCU and in the X-Men films with characters being recast in-between movies even without the universe/storyline itself being rebooted.

Also, being a shapeshifter I can already see them playing it off with a cheesy gag ("I swear you used to look different." *shapeshifts into relevant character for mission* "Yeah, I get that a lot.")
 

Darks63

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Too bad It cant be her last movie ever period. I've gotten pretty fatigued from how it seems like she is in every movie that is coming out this year.
 

Grabehn

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Considering how Mystique is the one character that can be pretty much played by anyone, I can't say anything's lost here.

Besides, she's awfully flat as an actress, so if anything, they might find a better one if this doesn't actually mean they're just killing the character.
 

Lightknight

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My only regret is that X-Men:Apocalypse won't be her last movie at all. We don't need more flat actors and actresses.

Darks63 said:
Too bad It cant be her last movie ever period. I've gotten pretty fatigued from how it seems like she is in every movie that is coming out this year.
Whoa! I entered this post before seeing yours. *high five*

The_Darkness said:
Okay, I'll be the odd one out - I really liked Jennifer Lawrence in both Days of Future Past and First Class. She brought a complexity to Mystique that hadn't been there for the original trilogy.
You may be confusing how the script gave the character more depth with her somehow playing a role in that.

The writers gave the character more depth, she did not. Sadly enough, the child actress was better at it than she was.