There are spoilers for the X-Men series at play, so stop reading now if you do NOT want to know them!
Bryan Singer's X-Men: Apocalypse represented the middle of the road for the comic book genre when it hit theaters last summer. I mean that literally, as it holds a 48% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It wasn't the worst superhero adventure, but it was also far from the cream of the crop. However, the film did manage to set itself apart for its willingness to kill Lucas Till's Havok -- a character who had been around since the series reboot in X-Men: First Class. I recently had the opportunity to chat with Till about his time as a mutant, and he seemed pretty pleased with his character's fate. The actor explained:
I thought it was really cool. I feel like people are always like 'Oh, it's X-Men. It's X-Men you can always come back.' But I was like 'No, I think it's cool that I died.' I think people were kind of nervous to tell me that I died but I thought it was really neat.
Lucas Till's Alex Summers represents the only core member of the X-Men ensemble to die in the conflict against Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac) during the most recent mutant adventure, and that's apparently the way the actor likes it. Death has become such a rarity in the realm of comic book movies (particularly in the X-Men universe, where resurrections happen all the time) that Till ultimately appreciated the fact that 20th Century Fox was willing to send the character out in such explosive fashion. We certainly feel inclined to agree with Till on this matter, as Havok's death in the X-Jet explosion served as the perfect jumping off point to compel Tye Sheridan's Scott Summers to step up and embrace his newfound role as Cyclops in the fight against Apocalypse.
Havok's death marked a major blow to fans of the franchise. As a central member of Charles Xavier's (James McAvoy) first X-Men team in First Class, the character continued on a clear trajectory through X-Men: Days of Future Past until his death in Apocalypse. Although he never actually took center stage as a team leader, Lucas Till managed to capture the petulant spirit of the character perfectly and depict a solid arc throughout his three films in the series.
Check out Havok's awesome final moments below:
Of course, Lucas Till already knows that death is not always permanent in the world of comic book movies, so he made sure to temper his enthusiasm with the realization that the X-Men universe could always find a way to undo Havok's death. He said:
But also it is X-Men and you don't really see me die and if I can withstand cosmic energy coming from my chest I might be able to withstand some extreme levels of heat. Maybe that level fell just right so that maybe I survived, I don't know. I thought it was cool though.
That's a point worth remembering; the character survived a ton of fiery moments over the course of his tenure in the franchise, so it's not impossible that he somehow managed to make it out alive. That said, based upon Lucas Till's comments it seems likely that he would not mind staying dead permanently. Few comic book movie characters have the opportunity to truly die these days, so his blaze of glory genuinely stands out as a unique moment for the genre as a whole. That's not a bad legacy to leave behind.
We will just have to wait and see what happens as the X-Men franchise moves into the future. For now, you can catch Lucas Till in Monster Trucks, which hit theaters this weekend on January 13.
