Michael Fassbender's contract with 20th Century Fox expired with last year's X-Men: Apocalypse, but that doesn't necessarily mean that his days as Erik Lehnsherr, aka Magneto, are over. In fact, it now appears that his contract has been renewed, and he’ll return in next year's X-Men: Dark Phoenix.
MTV's Josh Horowitz, who hosts the Happy Sad Confused podcast, recently shared a small but powerful tease about the future of Fassbender's character, Magneto. Horowitz interviewed the actor for the podcast's upcoming episode, and though he later refrained from sharing a direct quote, he strongly hinted that the Master of Magnet would show up in the November 2, 2018 release. In addition, he apparently learned that the character won't appear in Josh Boone's New Mutants:
Want to know Fassbender’s X-MEN future? Bet big on him appearing in DARK PHOENIX but not NEW MUTANTS. Oh, I just saw Michael Fassbender BTW
"” Josh Horowitz (@joshuahorowitz) May 15, 2017
@MovieCooper Podcast with him comes out on Wednesday
"” Josh Horowitz (@joshuahorowitz) May 15, 2017
A recent report suggested that James McAvoy's Charles Xavier, aka Professor X, won’t appear in the April 13, 2018 release. We weren't really expecting to see Fassbender's character in that movie, either, but McAvoy and Nicholas Hoult, who portrays Beast, seemed to tease their return in X-Men: Dark Phoenix last February. Despite producer Lauren Shuler Donner’s claim that they wouldn't "once again explore the Erik/Charles dynamic", we don't want these characters to suddenly disappear.
Of course, the last thing we want to see in the upcoming mainstream X-Men installment is for Magneto to start off as a bad guy, only to find some goodness within himself and walk away. We’ve already seen this a number of times in this franchise.
At the moment, X-Men: Dark Phoenix still lacks a director. Writer/producer Simon Kinberg was in early talks to take the helm, but we’ve had no information about that for some time. Sophie Turner is the only one to have confirmed her return, but it was heavily rumored from the start that the movie would adapt The Dark Phoenix Saga.
