Last Saturday news came down the wire that actor Benjamin Walker had decided to walk away from the upcoming Matthew Vaughn film X-Men: First Class. Though he was one of the earliest signed, the actor decided that playing President Andrew Jackson in the Broadway production of Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson was the better career choice. The move, however, left the production without an actor to portray Dr. Hank McCoy, better known as Beast. Now news has come down that Fox has found a replacement.
Deadline reports that Nicholas Hoult has been cast as Walker's replacement in the film. Last seen in theaters playing Eusebios in Clash of the Titans, Hoult has a role in the upcoming Mad Max: Fury Road, but production delays have opened his schedule. Originally from Berkshire, England, the actor is the fourth British actor to join the cast, which already includes James McAvoy as Professor X, Michael Fassbender as Magneto and Alice Eve as Emma Frost (should rumors be true regarding Rosamund Pike and Aaron Johnson, he would actually be the sixth British actor).
Having seen his work on the show Skins, I know that Hoult is a great actor, but is anyone else mystified by the lack of Americans on the cast list? It makes sense that Professor X and Magneto would be played by European actors, but the bulk of the characters in the X-Men are U.S. born. If the actors are able to put on convincing enough accents, there's no reason that this shouldn't work, and I don't mean to sound xenophobic, but it is quite peculiar.
