As Vanessa Hudgens and MLB baseball player Cole Tucker get ready to soon say “I do,” the High School Musical star just went untraditional with a pre-wedding tradition in the most on-brand way. Over the years, Hudgens has made it known how much she loves the Halloween holiday, so now that she’s revealed how she celebrated her bachelorette party alongside fellow famous friends like Sarah Hyland and Alexandra Shipp, we’re not surprised she took some spooky inspiration. 

Hudgens has been fully embracing her favorite time of year, as per usual, on her social media, and that carried over into her bride celebrations. Here’s how the actress unveiled her bridal party and their latest festivities: 

The Queen of Halloween, who went all out on a Black Swan costume and a Spider-Man pole dancing routine this time of year in 2022, celebrated her bachelorette  spooky style! Hudgens is giving Corpse Bride vibes with a gorgeous white gown, starry headdress and flowing veil. In the Instagram post, she posed alongside her crew of best friends, who were absolutely serving in coordinating black fits.

From left to right, Hudgens' bridal party seems to consist of Morgan Marcell (whom she worked with on Rent: Live), Modern Family’s Sarah Hyland, Hailey Lavelle (who is not in the business), Hudgens’ fellow Tick, Tick… Boom! cast mate Alexandra Shipp, Laura New (who served as a choreographer on Hudgens’ latest movie Downtown Owl) and her younger sister, Stella Hudgens. Check out the squad going out on the town: 

This bridal party committed to an aesthetic and they look absolutely stunning! I can assure you that they were turning heads that night. Take a look at more photos of Hudgens gorgeous look: 

The veil beautifully has her and her soon-to-be husband’s initials written in white. On the particular post, Cole Tucker commented with an infinity symbol to show his mutual excitement about the upcoming affair. Now Hudgens' recent posts has fans questioning whether Hudgens is already a married woman and these are her wedding photos, but her husband would need to be in the photos if it was! Plus, a couple days prior to the photo dump, Hudgens shared this video about her bachelorette weekend in Aspen, Colorado that included a sneak peek of the iconic black and white outfits. 

Hudgens was wearing white all weekend as she partied with her best friends, and it looks like it was so much fun! You gotta love when brides inject their own personality in their wedding celebrations, and this party look was an absolute serve. Now we’ll have to wait and find out if she gets married on Halloween! 

Aside from Hudgens about to become a wife, she’s set to come back to the Bad Boys franchise for the fourth installment, which is among upcoming 2024 movies. Bad Boys 4 is expected to hit theaters on June 14, 2024. 

With June being Pride Month, it's that time of year to really get up and out to celebrate the LGBTQIA community. While Pride Month is all about embracing the colors of the rainbow, the Barbie movie has inspired celebrities to dress in full Barbiecore with the color pink being one of this year’s colors. And the Barbiecore continued to spread making its way to West Hollywood’s Pride Parade with the cast of Greta Gerwig’s comedy arriving on a hot pink float.

When the first look of Barbie came out a year ago, we were introduced to the pink, pink world of the iconic doll. Just when you thought it couldn’t get pinker, Alexandra Shipp, who plays a Barbie in Barbie's cast, posted a video of herself and other residents of Barbie’s World as they made a dazzling appearance with their hot pink float. Take a look at the cast looking all pretty in pink in this Instagram video:

As you can see, the X-Men: Apocalypse star is just gleaming with her hot pink attire as she’s waving her rainbow fan with the rest of the cast. This beautiful float featured the Barbie movie's logo with the release date on the front. Surrounding the float were baskets of Barbie and pride flags with two disco balls behind the float. This creatively-designed spectacle is not only a fun peak into what we can expect from the movie, but it's also such a fun way to celebrate pride. 

Along with Shipp, you can also spot Scott Evans, brother of Captain America’s Chris Evans, waving his rainbow fan with gusto. He will be playing one of the many Kens we’ll be seeing in the Warner Bros. Pictures film, and it seemed like he was having a blast on this float. Not only did the Barbie cast look proud to be part of this important event, but the fans were amped holding their “B” logos from the movie. 

Alexandra Shipp came out as a member of the LGBTQIA community in June 2021, per her Instagram. In her latest post about her upcoming movie and pride, she noted that she felt very proud to be part of the magic that the cast of Barbie brought to the parade. Due to her work schedule, the Love, Simon actress said she’s never been able to attend the WeHo Pride Parade before. She expressed that it was an amazing feeling for her to be there, and she thanked the “pure souls” who attended. 

Overall, the large-ensemble film has done a great job casting people of different races, cultures, and sexualities, and it’s amazing that the Barbie movie continues to show its support for the LGBTQIA community. 

It’s a relief that there was enough pink to be able to fill this Pride Parade float as creating Barbie’s world with the vibrant color led to an international shortage of it. As production designer Sarah Greenwood said, “The world ran out of pink.” However, I'm thrilled that they were able to get enough pink to make Barbie Land, and had some leftovers to create this epic pride float. If you’d like to see more fans celebrating Barbie’s pink goodness and pride, check out the movie’s Instagram post:.

The color pink brought by the cast of Barbie was welcomed into West Hollywood's pride parade, and it was amazing. If you feel like you can’t get enough pink into your life, you'll be able to catch the 2023 movie release when it hits theaters on July 21. 

Superhero movies are everywhere, with a number of studios crafting their own cinematic universe. But before these projects became commonplace, there was the X-Men franchise. The long-running property lasted for nearly two decades, and included two casts of actors. Alexandra Shipp played a younger version of Storm in the final two movies, taking on the role from Halle Berry. And the 31 year-old actress recently revealed her mental health issues she dealt with while playing Storm in those blockbusters.

Alexandra Shipp had some big shoes to fill as Storm, and she joined the X-Men franchise in its final two projects… which weren’t exactly well received. Shipp tried to contact Halle Berry for advice, to no avail. And despite having a dream gig playing a superhero, the Love, Simon actress recently took to Instagram to share her struggle with bipolar disorder and suicidal ideation at the time of playing Marvel’s Weather Witch. Check it out below:

Talk about being vulnerable. Being open about mental health issues can be daunting, especially when you’re a public figure. Shipp not only did that, but she got super honest about her issues while working on X-Men, with things getting dark enough that she was having suicidal thoughts. But she found a way to push through, and now is using her platform to help spread awareness for mental health.

While being a superhero in a blockbuster is a dream for many actors out there, it can definitely be a double-edged sword. As Shipp shared on Instagram, she was working hard to train as Storm, but was constantly told that she wasn’t good enough. Add in the grueling shooting hours and her bipolar diagnosis, and things eventually got very dark. But luckily those feelings weren’t permanent.

Apart from bravely sharing her own story about her struggles filming X-Men: Apocalypse and Dark Phoenix, Alexandra Shipp’s Instagram post is largely there as a message to folks who might be going through their own mental health issues. She encourages those individuals to seek help, and promises that happiness is indeed possible. And since May is Mental Health Awareness Month, this message is all the more powerful and timely.

Ultimately Dark Phoenix failed to perform at the box office, and it ended up being the final entry in the X-Men franchise. Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox made the franchise’s end seem all the more concrete. Although with Hugh Jackman returning to Wolverine in Deadpool 3, it feels like just about anything is possible. Still, Shipp made it clear that she’s done with playing Storm for good.

Alexandra Shipp has a number of projects coming down the line, including a role in Barbie. And Deadpool 3 will hit theaters on November 8th, 2024. In the meantime, check out the 2023 movie release dates to plan your next movie experience. 

Movie studios are always looking for ways to hedge their financial bets and to guarantee, as much as possible, that any film project will be a success. Anything with name recognition is fair game, which is why so many movies are sequels to previous hits or films based on comic books, video games, or even board games. Knowing this, it probably shouldn't have come as a shock that somebody decided to make a Barbie movie.

Yet, what the Barbie movie has become is somewhat shocking. Barbie was directed by Oscar-nominee Greta Gerwig, based on a script co-written by her and her longtime writing partner Noah Baumbach. From the moment that became known expectations of Barbie as a “popcorn movie” shifted to something else entirely. 

What we got was still a fun summer blockbuster, but one that had a lot more going on. It clearly resonated with fans as Barbie went on to become the second film of 2023 to make $1 billion at the global box office. It's become just as big a hit now that it has arrived on Digital platforms and Blu-ray. While the filmmakers behind the camera deserve a lot of credit, one cannot overlook the incredible cast.

Margot Robbie 

You can’t have a Barbie movie without Barbie, and while the film previously had Amy Schumer and then Anne Hathaway attached in the title role at various points, Margot Robbie was the Barbie that got the movie made. Robbie was probably best known today for her role as Harley Quinn in three DC movies, including 2021's The Suicide Squad. She’s also a two-time Oscar nominee for her supporting role in the Fox News drama Bombshell and her lead role in the dark comedy biopic I, Tonya.

Ryan Gosling 

Barbie needs her Ken, and while Hollywood has no shortage of actors who could pass for a live-action Ken doll, Ryan Gosling took on the role of Barbie’s boyfriend. Unlike the character's namesake doll, the Barbie movie was as much about Ken as it was Barbie, with Gosling's character functionally playing the villain, if a hapless one. It was an incredible performance that actually has people talking about an Oscar nomination for Gosling. 

Will Ferrell 

While Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling have played comedy and drama in equal measure, a few of the other casting announcements from Barbie had a decidedly comedic slant. None among them exemplified this more so than Will Ferrell. Will Ferrell played the CEO of the toy company Mattel, the company that owns Barbie. While Ferrell's character was as silly as the actor usually is, he's also one of the few people who knows what's going on when Ken and Barbie cross over to the real world from Barbie World. 

Simu Liu 

It wasn’t all that long ago that Simu Liu was a moderately famous person in a well-received comedy, but now he’s a Marvel hero and a global superstar. Simu Liu went from Kim’s Convenience to Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings to Barbie, where played another Ken, a sort of foil for Gosling's character, as both competed for the affection of Robbie's Barbie, even if they didn't really understand why. 

America Ferrera 

Fans of the NBC comedy Superstore or the cult hit ABC series Ugly Betty will require no introduction to America Ferrera. On the big screen, she was a member of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, as well as the voice of Astrid in the How to Train Your Dragon franchise from DreamWorks Animation. In Barbie, she plays one of the key human characters, who inadvertently causes the problems for Barbie that lead her into the human world.

Kate McKinnon 

Kate McKinnon is set to join her Bombshell co-star Margot Robbie, as she will also be part of the Barbie movie. McKinnon is, of course, best known for her long run on Saturday Night Live. On the big screen, she appeared in the Ghostbusters reboot, but has also done a significant amount of voice work in animated films and TV, from Pixar’s Finding Dory to Netflix’s The Magic School Bus. As "Weird Barbie" McKinnon suffered the fate that so many children's toys often do, though that turned her into a sort of sage.

Michael Cera 

Michael Cera jumped onto a lot of people’s radar back in 2007 thanks to his roles in both Superbad and Juno. From there, he has appeared in cult hits like Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and actual box office hits like The LEGO Batman Movie. He’s probably best known for his role as George-Michael Bluth in Arrested Development. In Barbie Cera played Alan, the only male resident of Barbie Land who was not Ken. He's designed to be second fiddle, but he steals every scene he's in.

Helen Mirren

One potential surprise in the Barbie cast came from a character who was heard, but never seen. Hellen Mirren narrated the first Barbie trailer, but that wasn't a one-off deal. She actually narrated the entire film, and also had some of the best jokes in the movie, including a hilarious Barbie F-bomb that was cut from the script.

Emma Mackey 

Emma Mackey is something of a newcomer with only a handful of credits to her name to date, but in a short time, she has become a pretty big star. She’s one of three cast members from Netflix’s Sex Education to join Barbie, and she was recently part of the star-studded cast of Kenneth Branagh's Death on the Nile. Mackey portrayed yet another Barbie.

Ncuti Gatwa 

One of Emma Mackay’s co-stars on Sex Education who will be part of Barbie is Ncuti Gatwa, and while Barbie will no doubt mark the young actor’s biggest role on the big screen to date when it is released, it’s clear Gatwa has a bright future. He's been cast as the new Doctor in BBC’s Doctor Who, taking over the role from Jodie Whittaker. Gatwa will be the first person of color to lead the series, and the second Black actor to play The Doctor following Jo Martin's recurring run as the Fugitive Doctor. Gatwa played yet another Ken from Barbie Land.

Connor Swindells

Connor Swindells finishes out the Sex Education cast trifecta. We don’t know anything more about his role in Barbie than we do his other two cast-mates, so whether or not any of them will even cross paths is a mystery. If nothing else, it’s a testament to the casting of the Netflix series. Swindells appears in Barbie as Aaron Dinkins, a Mattel employee who has the unfortunate task of informing the company that Barbie has gone rogue.

Alexandra Shipp 

Marvel fans know Alexandra Shipp for playing the younger version of Storm in the last couple of X-Men movies produced under Fox pre-Disney. More recently, she played Susan, the love interest of Andrew Garfield's Jonathan Larson, in Tick…Tick…Boom! for Netflix. She appeared in Barbie as yet another Barbie.

Issa Rae 

Issa Rae is a successful writer, producer, and actress, and her name has only become more recognizable since the success of HBO show Insecure. As big a name as she has become, however, 2023 is getting ready to be perhaps her biggest year to date. Not only did she appear as a Barbie in the Barbie movie, but she also voiced the Jessica Drew version of Spider-Woman in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse the same summer. 

Kingsley Ben-Adir 

Kingsley Ben-Adir is an actor you’ll recognize if you’re a fan of Peaky Blinders or if you happened to catch the short-lived High Fidelity series on Hulu. His highest profile role was playing Malcolm X in the Oscar-nominated One Night in Miami, but Ben-Adir is probably a lot more recognizable now. At the same time that he played a Ken in the Barbie movie, he was also in Marvel’s Secret Invasion series on Disney+. 

Ariana Greenblatt 

Ariana Greenblatt is one of many young stars to get her start at the House of Mouse. She had a regular series role on the Disney Channel’s Stuck in the Middle. Since then, she’s made a somewhat unusual habit of playing the “young” version of several major franchise characters, like young Gamora in Avengers: Infinity War, young Velma in Scoob and young Nina in In the Heights. Greenblatt played Sasha, the daughter to America Ferrara's character, who once played with Barbie, but has since grown out of the dolls. 

Rhea Perlman 

Rhea Perlman will always be known first and foremost for her role as waitress Carla on the hit NBC sitcom Cheers. If you feel like you haven’t seen her in TV or movies as much recently, it’s possibly because you’ve heard her much more. Perlman has done a lot of voice-over work, including the voice of Cid in Disney+’s animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars spinoff The Bad Batch. Perlman had a small but vital role in Barbie as Ruth, and if you don't know more than that, we're not spoiling it.

John Cena

Of all the actors who play Ken in Barbie, John Cena is perhaps the most entertaining. He only appears in a couple of brief scenes, but the fact that he plays a merman version of Ken is hilarious in itself. It becomes that much funnier when we learn Cena was apparently just in the neighborhood, and filmed a cameo for fun.

Emerald Fennell 

Emerald Fennell is best known today for her work behind the camera, particularly as the Oscar-winning writer of Promising Young Woman, as much as she's known for her acting. Fennell has nearly two dozen acting credits to her name, including playing Nurse Patsy Mount in Call the Midwife and as Camila Parker Bowles on Netflix’s The Crown. She played Midge in Barbie, a discontinued member of the toy lineup.

Jamie Demetriou 

With more than 60 acting credits to his name in less than a decade, Jamie Demetriou has been a quite prolific performer, and his breadth of appearances is such that you have almost certainly seen him somewhere. He's had roles in everything from Disney’s Cruella to Paddington 2 to Hulu’s The Great. Most recently, he played the role of Walt on Apple TV+’s hit series The Afterparty. He appears in Barbie as one of the Mattel executives.

Ritu Arya 

Ritu Arya has had roles in the BBC’s Sherlock and Doctor Who, but she’s become a more familiar face to US audiences thanks to a pair of appearances on Netflix. She played Inspector Urvashi Das, the character chasing after Dwayne Johnson and Ryan Reynolds' characters, in Red Notice, and she’s also Lila Pitts on The Umbrella Academy. She joined the parade of Barbies in the movie.

Hari Nef

Hari Nef has more than two dozen acting credits to her name including appearances including Amazon's Transparent and Netflix's You. She had a role in the pilot of the L.A. Law reboot that we'll now never see. She appeared in Barbie as another of the Barbie characters.

Sharon Rooney

Sharon Rooney will look much more familiar to audiences in the UK, following turns in series like My Mad Fat Diary, Brief Encounters and Two Doors Down. U.S. audiences will know her best from the live-action remake of Disney's Dumbo, where she played the role of Miss Atlantis, the woman who sings the iconic song "Baby Mine." She appears in Barbie as Barbie. But not that Barbie, the other Barbie.

Scott Evans

Scott Evans spent two years on the soap opera One Life to Live on ABC. He's also played small roles in a number of TV shows and movies including appearances in Law & Order, Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones, and White Collar. More recently, he played Oliver in Netflix's Grace & Frankie. He's part of the army of Kens found of Barbie Land.

Ana Cruz Kanye

Ana Cruz Kayne will be reuniting with Greta Gerwig when she appears in the Barbie movie. Kayne previously appeared in Little Women. She'll be appearing soon in Painkiller, a limited series starring Mathew Broderick focusing on the birth of the opioid crisis. She is yet another Barbie.

With a cast this extensive and utterly impressive, we knew Barbie was likely to be a lot of fun. However, there was no way to know what a massive hit the film would become. The story resonated was audiences in a bit way, on its way to incredible box office success. Now you can enjoy Barbie as much as you want at home as well.

Before cinematic universes and superhero flicks became commonplace, there was 20th Century Fox’s X-Men franchise. The property lasted nearly two decades, with multiple actors playing the beloved mutants. X-Men alum Alexandra Shipp recently reflected on playing Storm after Halle Berry, while also weighing in on who should take the role next.

Alexandra Shipp made her debut as Storm in X-Men: Apocalypse, before reprising her role in the final chapter of the franchise, Dark Phoenix. The 30 year-old actress had some big shoes to fill, inheriting the role from Oscar winner Halle Berry. She was recently asked by Comic Book Movie about her time as a mutant, saying:

How sweet is that? While Alexandra Shipp’s time as Storm seemingly came to an unexpected end after 20th Century Fox was acquired by Disney, she was super happy with her time playing Storm on the big screen. Even if Halle Berry wasn’t exactly forthcoming with advice on how to play the Marvel’s Weather Witch. 

Alexandra Shipp got to take the mantle of Storm in the First Class timeline, which featured younger versions of the beloved X-Men. In Apocalypse she became one of the titular villain’s Four Horseman, but eventually switched sides and helped the heroes in the final battle. She’d become a full-fledged X-Man in Dark Phoenix, participating in the team’s civil war over Jean Grey.

Later in her same interview, Alexandra Shipp addressed the possible future of Storm on the big screen. Following Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox, the X-Men were finally able to join the MCU. This hasn’t happened quite yet, although Patrick Stewart’s role in Doctor Strange 2 definitely hints at this eventually happening. But who should replace Shipp as Storm? She’s got some thoughts, saying:

Touche. Over the past few years, there’s been a ton of conversation about onscreen representation. The discourse also includes colorism; light skinned people of color are sometimes given more opportunities than actors with deeper, more rich skin tones. Alexandra Shipp seems to be acknowledging her privilege in this matter, and would love to see an actress with a darker complexion play Storm next.

Unfortunately, there’s currently no indication as to if/when Kevin Feige and company will finally bring the X-Men to the MCU. But fans can’t wait, and have been theorizing about which actors could play fan favorite characters like Wolverine and Storm. Considering Patrick Stewart’s role in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, maybe Alexandra Shipp will get another chance to play her signature hero on the big screen.

The next installment in the MCU is Thor: Love and Thunder on July 8th. In the meantime, check out the 2022 movie release dates to plan your next movie experience. 

The Lifetime movie Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B started the process of Alexandra Shipp becoming a household name. Shipp has since expanded her career, taking on a variety of different roles and showing exponential acting growth over the years. Whether you know her as Storm in the X-Men movies or Abby in Love, Simon, Alexandra Shipp likely has grabbed your attention. Now more so than ever, with her star making performance in Tick, Tick…Boom.

For those unfamiliar with Shipp, the Netflix film is, for sure, going to make you want to watch more of her. Luckily, there are plenty of projects featuring the Tick, Tick…Boom star streaming and available to buy or rent on your favorite VOD platform. Let’s look at some other Alexandra Shipp movies and TV shows available to stream or rent. 

The X-Men Movies (Disney+)

Alexandra Shipp first made her Storm debut in X-Men: Apocalypse, where a team of young mutants have to square off against the first of their kind, and then reprised the role in X-Men: Dark Phoenix, when the group has to take on a formerly trusted ally.

Storm is a beloved X-Men character, and Halle Berry had already added her signature style to the character, so Shipp had a lot to live up to, but she managed to give her version of Storm a distinct style and character. We doubt we’ll see Shipp as Storm again in the near future, but sometimes actors you thought would never play a superhero again do suit back up. 

Stream X-Men: Apocalypse on Disney+.
Stream X-Men: Dark Phoenix on Disney+.

Rent/buy X-Men: Apocalypse on Amazon.
Rent/buy X-Men: Dark Phoenix on Amazon.

Love, Simon (Hulu)

Love, Simon is a teen romance dramedy about Simon (Nick Robinson), a boy who comes to terms with his sexuality and finds his first love through a secret email pen pal. However, he’s not ready to tell the world about his sexuality, which leads to him having to lie to his friends and interfere in others’ love stories. Love, Simon also stars Josh Duhamel, Jennifer Garner, Katherine Langford, Alexandra Shipp, Jorge Lendeborg Jr., and Keiynan Lonsdale. 

In Love, Simon, Alexandra Shipp plays Abby, one of Simon’s best friends, and one of the main people at the center of the romantic drama, not involving Simon’s own quest for love. Shipp gives Abby a charm and sweetness that makes it easy to see why multiple male characters want her heart. 

Stream Love, Simon on Hulu.

Tragedy Girls (Hulu)

Tragedy Girls is a horror comedy about two teen girls with an obsession with serial killers. They then take on the serial killer trade themselves. Tragedy Girls stars Alexandra Shipp, Brianna Hildebrand, Josh Hutcherson, Craig Robinson, Kevin Durand, and Jack Quaid. 

Tragedy Girls is one of those really funny, unique, and oddly charismatic horror comedies that not many people have seen. Shipp’s McKayla and Hildebrand’s Sadie are both really funny and have a friendship bond that makes them so fun to watch together. You will likely find yourself rooting for them, even if that means they have to kill a few more people. 

Stream Tragedy Girls on Hulu.
Rent/buy Tragedy Girls on Amazon.

All The Bright Places (Netflix)

All the Bright Place is a Netflix original movie based on the book of the same name. It’s about two teens, Violet (Elle Fanning) and Theodore (Justice Smith), two teens suffering emotionally and mentally. They’re paired on a project and find love for the first time, which offers some comfort and joy. 

Alexandra Shipp plays Theodore’s older sister Kate, who becomes like his guardian figure. One of All the Bright Places’s strengths is the brother and sister relationship between Kate and Theodore. Their bond comes across strongly on screen and it’s what helps ground the character of Theodore, which bonds viewers to him and makes the ending more impactful.

Stream All the Bright Places on Netflix. 

House of Anubis (Paramount+)

House of Anubis was a Nickelodeon original series that aired for three seasons from 2011 to 2013.  It followed the residents of an English boarding school. Each season involved a different mystery surrounding the Anubis residence at the school. The series starred many different actors throughout the three seasons, but Brad Kavanagh, Jade Ramsey, Eugene Simon and Alex Sawyer were among the cast members who appeared in every episode. 

Alexandra Shipp played KT Rush. House of Anubis introduced her character in the third and final season. She was a major character, and played a big role in that season’s mystery. This was one of Alexandra Shipp’s first leading roles, so it’s a good series to watch if you want to familiarize yourself with her early work.

Stream House of Anubis on Paramount+.
Buy House of Anubis on Amazon.

Drumline: A New Beat (Amazon)

Drumline: A New Beat is the 2014 sequel to Drumline. This film follows Danielle “Dani” Raymond (Alexandra Shipp) who wants to become the drum leader of an elite marching band at a fictional historically black college. Drumline: A New Beat also stars Leonard Roberts, Mario Van Peebles, and Jordan Calloway. It also includes Nick Cannon, who reprises his Drumline role of Devon Miles. 

Drumline: A New Beat is a VH1 original movie, so it’s not exactly the best on this list, but it’s a fun movie that hits some of the same beats as the original film. Shipp creates a sympathetic heroine who you want to see rise to the challenge and surpass expectations. 

Rent/buy Drumline: A New Beat on Amazon.

Silk Road (Hulu)

Silk Road is a movie about a young man who creates a website that allows people to buy drugs and have them delivered through the United States Postal Service. It’s based on the true events surrounding the real Silk Road website and Ross Ulbricht. It stars Nick Robinson, Jason Clarke, Alexandra Shipp, Jimmi Simpson, and Paul Walter Hauser. Tiller Russell directed Silk Road.

Silk Road is a fascinating film, especially knowing that the film is based on real-life events. Shipp plays Ulbricht’s girlfriend, Julie. At first, she’s along for the ride, but then starts to worry about his dance with the dark side of the internet, and Shipp plays the switch perfectly. 

Stream Silk Road on Hulu.
Rent/buy Silk Road on Amazon.

Dude (Netflix)

Dude follows a group of high school friends who have their final days school shattered by broken promises, a death, boys, and growing up. It stars Lucy Hale, Kathryn Prescott, Alexandra Shipp, and Awkwafina.

The chemistry between the four leads in Dude is what sells this movie. You believe they’re these friends who may think they have it all figured out, but they’re still just teen girls trying to make sense of life. Awkwafina and Alexandra Shipp’s characters act more as the comedic relief, which is needed when Dude tackles some heavier topics. 

Stream Dude on Netflix.

Jexi (Showtime)

Adam DeVine stars in Jexi. The film is a romantic comedy about a man whose smartphone starts to instruct him how to live his life and begins to manipulate situations in his favor. Jexi also stars Alexandra Shipp, Michael Pena, and Rose Byrne. 

In my opinion, Adam DeVine is an ideal romantic lead. He always ends up charming his way into the audience's hearts, and Jexi is no exception. You root for his character to win Shipp’s character over, and that’s mainly because of their on-screen chemistry and the effortlessness of their romance. 

Stream Jexi on  Showtime.
Rent/buy Jexi on Amazon.

Alexandra Shipp continues to impress with each new project; Tick, Tick…Boom may be one of her best performances yet, and it's definitely one of the best recent movies on Netflix. We can’t wait to watch more of Alexandra Shipp’s on-screen evolution and her next major projects. 

There have been some awesome movie musicals that have popped up in the last couple of years, such as the filmed stage production of Hamilton, or even Ryan Murphy’s adaptation of The Prom on Netflix. However, a new musical has stepped into the spotlight, and that would be Tick, Tick...Boom!, the film adaptation of Jonathan Larson’s auto-biographical musical, starring Andrew Garfield, and directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda, which will most likely become one of the best movies on Netflix. 

But, with such a long cast, full of familiar faces both in Hollywood and from Broadway, one can only wonder where you might have seen these people before. If you’re wondering why those faces look so familiar, here is where the Tick, Tick...Boom! cast has popped up prior to their roles in the Netflix musical. 

Andrew Garfield (Jonathan Larson)

As the star of Tick, Tick...Boom!, Andrew Garfield plays the real-life Jonathan Larson, and he's appeared not only in a variety of movies but plays on Broadway as well. 

First off, with movies, Garfield has been in several big-time films, such as the Academy Award-winning The Social Network, the science fiction romance Never Let Me Go, the war drama Hacksaw Ridge, and the Martin Scorsese film, Silence. Garfield has also stepped into the superhero spotlight, playing the iconic superhero, Spider-Man, during the Amazing Spider-Man franchise from 2012-2014.

Garfield has also performed several times on Broadway. He played Arthur Miller in the 2012 Broadway revival of Death of a Salesman, which earned him a 2012 Tony Award nomination, and starred as Prior Walter in a production of Angels in America, a role he reprised on Broadway in 2018, which won him the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Play.

Alexandra Shipp (Susan)

In Tick, Tick...Boom!, Alexandra Shipp plays Susan, and Shipp has been around in the business of Hollywood for a while, in both television and movies. 

Her biggest role in television was playing Aaliyah Haughton in the television movie, Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B, a biographical film about the star of the same name. She also played KT Rush in the Nickelodeon show, House of Anubis, and has guest starred on several TV shows, like Ray Donovan, Awkward, Victorious, and more. 

In movies, Shipp is most known for playing Storm in the later X-Men films, X-Men Apocalypse and in Dark Phoenix. Other than that, she’s appeared in several films, such as Deadpool 2, the coming-of-age film Love, Simon, the biographical movie Straight Outta Compton, the Netflix original film All the Bright Places, and more.  

Robin de Jesus (Michael)

Moving on, Robin de Jesus plays Michael in Tick, Tick...Boom!. While de Jesus hasn’t been in as many films and television shows as some of his co-stars, he’s appeared in a multitude of Broadway shows. 

In movies, de Jesus has appeared in the musical drama Camp, the dramas 11:55 and The Boys in the Band, among others. With television, he appeared as Jose Silva in five episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. However, Robin de Jesus has offered his talents much more to the world of musicals. 

He was part of the original Broadway cast of In the Heights until 2010, but also appeared in a variety of musicals and plays such as Rent (created by Jonathan Larson), Aladdin, Wicked, and played Emory in the Broadway revival of The Boys in the Band. With someone as talented as him, on both stage and screen, it’s no surprise he ended up in a movie like Tick, Tick...Boom!. 

Joshua Henry (Roger)

Joshua Henry plays Roger in Tick, Tick...Boom!, and this Netflix musical movie is actually his first major film role. 

Henry has been very active on Broadway for some time. He was part of the ensemble of In the Heights from 2007-2008, played the Tin Man in The Wiz, Haywood Patterson in The Scottsboro Boys, and played Aaron Burr in Hamilton in the Chicago version of the show, as well as in the first U.S. National tour. He also played Billy Bigelow in Carousel and Dr. Pomatter in Waitress in 2021. 

Joshua Henry has had some film and TV experience, like a minor guest appearance on Ryan Murphy’s Nip/Tuck, as well as a small role in the first Sex and the City film. He also played Quincy in Army Wives, and Jerlamarel in the Apple TV+ series, See, but Tick, Tick...Boom! is hopefully going to give Henry the momentum he needs to step into the spotlight of movies. 

MJ Rodriguez (Carolyn)

Playing Carolyn in Tick, Tick...Boom! is MJ Rodriguez, a transgender actress who has been active on both stage and screen for a long time. She started off her career as a stage actress, playing Angel in Rent, and appearing in many other musicals like Runaways and Little Shop of Horrors. 

Later on, she began to show up in both television and film. She appeared in the comedy Adam, and the musical fantasy drama, Saturday Church. 

Rodriguez also had many guest appearances on shows like the Showtime series, Nurse Jackie, The Carrie Diaries, Netflix’s Luke Cage, but it wasn’t until 2018, when she took the role of Blanca Rodriguez-Evangelista in the Ryan Murphy series, Pose that she broke out into mainstream and became well-known. Now, after Tick, Tick...Boom!, hopefully more people will see her and know just how much talent she has. 

 Bradley Whitford (Stephen Sondheim) 

Next up, we have Bradley Whitford, playing the real-life Stephen Sondheim in Tick, Tick...Boom! Whitford, who has been a popular actor in both movies and TV for a long time, has surely appeared in something you have seen. 

Whitford has been in several television shows. He played White House Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman in the critically acclaimed The West Wing, for which he won an Emmy. He also won a second Emmy in 2015 for his role as Marcy in the Amazon original series, Transparent. Other than that, Whitford has had roles as Danny Tripp in Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Dan Stark on The Good Guys, Timothy Carter on The Mentalist, Roger Peralta in Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Commander Joseph Lawrence in the Hulu original series, The Handmaid’s Tale, and so many others. 

Bradley Whitford has also had a prominent film career. Some of his biggest roles were playing Eric Gordon in Billy Madison, Arthur Parsons in The Post, Rick Stanton in Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and Dean Armitage in the horror movie Get Out. He’s also appeared in other movies, such as Saving Mr. Banks, The Cabin in the Woods, The Last Full Measure, and many more. 

Tariq Trotter (H.A.W.K. Smooth)

Tariq Trotter, otherwise known as Black Thought, is in Tick, Tick...Boom! as H.A.W.K. Smooth, and is primarily known for his music as a rapper and the lead MC of the Philadelphia-based hip hop group, The Roots. They have released a total of eleven albums, and have been the main band on the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. 

Besides his musical ability, Trotter has appeared in a variety of movies and TV shows, such as the biographical film Get On Up, The Deuce, and the Netflix original series, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. With someone as talented as him, it's no wonder that he's had such a prolific career in the music industry, and was a great addition to the cast of Tick, Tick...Boom!.

Judith Light (Rosa Stevens)

Judith Light, who plays Rosa Stevens in Tick, Tick...Boom!, has been very successful in both the movie and TV industry. 

She started out of her career on Broadway in A Doll’s House, and then began working on television in 1977, as Karen Wolek on the daytime soap opera, One Life to Live. She then starred in and had several roles on television shows, like Angela Bower in Who’s the Boss?, Elizabeth Donnelly in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Claire Meade in Ugly Betty, Judith Brown in Dallas, and Shelly Pfefferman in Transparent. 

Besides her bigger roles, she’s appeared in a variety of TV shows as a guest, like Spin City, Nurse Jackie, and more. Her latest series she’s been a part of is Impeachment: American Crime Story, where she played Susan Carpenter-Mcmillan.  

Light has also appeared in several movies, like the comedies Last Weekend, We’ll Never Have Paris, Before You Know It, and more, but has mainly kept her talents to television. Hopefully with Tick, Tick...Boom!, we’ll see a lot more of her in the theaters soon. 

Vanessa Hudgens (Karessa Johnson)

Last up, we take a look at Vanessa Hudgens, who plays Karessa Johnson in Tick, Tick...Boom! For some time, Hudgens has been active in Hollywood, mainly in movies. Her breakout role was playing Gabriella Montez in the legendary Disney Channel-movie franchise, High School Musical. 

After that, she appeared in a variety of movies, including the romantic drama Beastly, the Zack Snyder-directed action movie Sucker Punch, the adventure film Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, Spring Breakers, the Will Smith and Martin Lawrence movie, Bad Boys for Life, and more. She’s also had quite a Netflix presence, having her own series of Christmas movies called The Princess Switch, in which she plays three - that’s right, three - different character, as well as starring in The Knight Before Christmas.

Hudgens has also had some time on the small screen as well. Besides her big-time role in the first two High School Musical movies, Hudgens played the role of Emily Locke in the NBC series, Powerless, and has appeared on many television shows as a guest. She also had some time on stage as well, including playing Rizzo in Grease: Live and Maureen Johnson in Rent: Live. 

With such a talented cast, it’s no surprise that you’ve probably seen a lot of the actors and actresses of Tick, Tick...Boom! in many other projects before. And I’m sure you’ll only continue to see them as time goes on.  

Ah, the teen drama genre: a time-tested money maker, both in terms of the cinematic and literary canons of the world. Watching the trailers for director Scott Speer’s Endless, you can tell that the idea behind the film is very much at home in the same type of atmosphere that the Twilight saga made so famous over a decade ago. However, that’s just the surface of what the movie has to offer, as there are surprising depths in this romantic exploration of grief and the paranormal.

Endless sees teenagers Riley (Alexandra Shipp) and Chris (Nicholas Hamilton) graduating high school in a sleepy Northwestern town. She’s a budding artist headed to Georgetown, while he’s a troubled young man who’s really good with a wrench. Their romance is at a crossroads when her college plans becomes public knowledge, but before they really get to argue about it their romance is cut short due to Chris’ untimely death in a car accident. With Riley recovering from the accident and the loss of her boyfriend, our protagonist goes through some tough times – events that are made even more difficult by the fact that Chris’ soul is stuck in limbo where he can see and hear the world of the living.

While starting out as a standard teenage supernatural drama, Endless eventually goes to some pretty emotional places.

At the start of Endless, it really feels like the movie is going to steer hard into the lane that made supernatural teen romance movies popular in the first place. Wistful narration, drives through the backwoods, and big fights about the future of this young couple build the foundation of the movie's central romantic relationship. But once the car crash that tragically separates our lovers plays out, the film starts to turn into something new all-together. Playing out through twin story strands, the film follows Riley as she deals with her grief, and also digs into the investigation into the accident that injured her and killed the love of her life. Meanwhile, Chris is navigating the world between the living and the dead with the assistance of a helpful fellow spirit (DeRon Horton) who shows him the ropes. The way these two stories ultimately intersect makes for some solid dramatic tension that leads to a third act that dives head-on into something that could have been better set up if the first act shied away from the usual teen theatrics.

Endless owes a bit of a creative debt to both Ghost and Twilight.

As much as Endless feels like it had elements of tone and story from Twilight grafted onto it, there’s also a lot of DNA from the ‘90s classic Ghost. With the eventual encounters that Riley feels from Chris’ otherworldly spirit, there’s more than a hint of the same sort of romance that Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze shared decades ago. Swap out pottery for cutting up a tomato, and you’ve got a toned down scene of romance for the teen audience the new supernatural romance is trying to attract. But rather than merely copying either of those inspirations, the film does work those elements into the mix in such a way that it doesn’t distract. The comparisons aren’t deal breakers, but rather a key ingredient to the story that helps some pieces work better than others. You need to believe this couple is really in love, and both Alexandra Shipp and Nicholas Hamilton craft a relationship that is a hair more believable than a standard teen romance. But the heavy lifting of Endless definitely goes to Ms. Shipp, as we see Riley go through the wringer, and all of the tolls it takes on her psyche as she deals with her trauma.

Despite a rough start, Endless is a surprise for non-genre fans, and a delight for those who are loyal followers.

While Endless has one too many subplots for its own good, and will definitely feel familiar to people who either love or loathe the genre, it surprisingly rises above both of those factors as an overall entertaining film. This is especially true when it comes to Alexandra Shipp’s performance, as she takes the role of Riley and turns in a tremendous rendition of a young woman overcome by sorrow, trying to figure out the next step. It may not a movie for everyone, and the heavily cynical audience member could still find themselves riffing the film for the first 20 minutes or so, but as the story begins to take shape, and the stakes start to raise, Endless might surprise even the most jaded of viewers with the level of heart and drama it eventually possesses.

Spoiler warning ahead for Shaft.

In the history of film at large, as well as the Shaft franchise in particular, female characters used to play a more submissive and supporting role to their male counterparts. But as times have changed, those characters have become more important and given more agency in the world of film, and as such the Shaft reboot has followed suit by giving two of the Shaft men effective, independent foils.

Those foiling influences come in the form of both Alexandra Shipp’s Sasha and Regina Hall’s Maya. That dynamic duo puts two generations of Shaft protagonists in their place, while also counseling and aiding their male scene partners. And during CinemaBlend’s rounds at the press day for Shaft, I got to hear from Shipp herself about just how amazing it was to be part of the process of bringing those women to the screen. She said:

Previously, we’ve discussed how Maya was a force to be reckoned with in Shaft, as during our set visit we found out that Regina Hall’s character was basically John Shaft II’s Kryptonite. While past Shaft films may have seen the protagonist smooth talk his way out of trouble, Maya and John Shaft II’s relationship is much more level. In fact, it’s Maya’s own choices that split the family apart, because she’d rather be separated from the man she loves than let their son die in dangerous circumstances.

And even during the film’s course of events, there’s the running thread of Samuel L. Jackson’s second generation of Shaft possibly wanting to get revenge on the local crime lord that spurs this separation. Not because of some macho grudge, but because he’s lost his wife and son to his life of danger and crime fighting.

But with Sasha and J.J., there’s a different energy at work, and one that’s not typical of a Shaft film. Sasha is a shoulder for J.J. to lean on while trying to solve the murder of their friend Karim. While J.J. naturally has a crush on his childhood friend, he’s not the usual self-assured Shaft man that his father or his grandfather always have been.

On top of that, Alexandra Shipp’s character isn’t some pushover who’ll settle for J.J. merely becoming the next generation of Shaft. She’s taken a bit by his puppy dog sort of charm, and feels even more of an affinity for him as he comes into his own through action violence, but never is she any weaker for falling for him.

Neither scenario between these independent women and the Shaft family are taken for granted by the film. Penned by Black-ish’s Kenya Barris and co-writer Alex Barnow, and directed by blockbuster filmmaker Tim Story; and they certainly aren’t forgotten by the talented women that play major roles in this film. What’s even better is that while Alexandra Shipp explained just how the female characters in Shaft are so badass, Regina Hall snuck in with some jokes to make the moment even better. Take a look at Alexandra and Regina’s rapport below, in the clip from their interview.

While the future of Shaft as a franchise will have to be determined by how this weekend’s box office results treat the film, there’s always room for thinking about the future. And if Regina Hall and Alexandra Shipp had their say, Maya and Sasha would get to raise some hell for themselves; complete with glitter grenades and machine guns at the ready. If that’s not a reason to hope for an extended Shaft universe, then quite frankly, what is?

Shaft hits theaters in early showings this Thursday, and you can find more coverage of the film’s release throughout this week here at CinemaBlend. So keep it tuned here for further updates.

Looking back, the X-Men franchise was key in the development of the modern comic book movie genre, and 19 years after it started it's still serving up superhero shenanigans. While the Disney-Fox deal has certainly changed what the future could look like for the franchise, there are still a lot of possibilities for interesting-looking spin-offs, not to mention new takes on previously shown characters and events which the folks at Disney and Marvel are surely already working to figure out. Not to be forgotten yet, however, is the main series of films, and it's the next chapter that we're here to discuss today.

After a relatively quick production period, but lots of delays, X-Men: Dark Phoenix is now finally less than a week away from release nationwide. But what is it about? Who is making it? What characters can we expect to appear? We cover all of these questions and more in our What We Know So Far guide below, so read on and learn!

What Have We Seen From Dark Phoenix?

It's been a long road, but September 26, 2018 finally delivered the first trailer from the highly anticipated movie. While that first look went heavy on the stress caused to Jean by meeting with the Phoenix force, and the resulting toll that will take on her friends and the world around her, the final trailer (above) gave us a better sense of some of the other action. This includes cool scenes of that meeting and a lot of the space action that would have led to it.

What Is Dark Phoenix's Release Date?

While June 7, 2019 will finally see Dark Phoenix hit theaters, it was a long road to get there. In 2017, the Marvel Cinematic Universe achieved something never before seen in Hollywood: releasing three franchise titles in the span of one calendar year. Well, in 2018 the X-Men movies were ready to compete. January through June should have seen both Josh Boone's The New Mutants and David Leitch's Deadpool 2 unleashed on the world, with 20th Century Fox is saving X-Men: Dark Phoenix for the winter months, having set it to come out on November 2, 2018.

That changed with some shakeups to scheduling in January and March of 2018, though. First, The New Mutants was pushed from April 13, 2018, to February 22, 2019, then to August 2, 2019 and now it rests at April 3, 2020. Dark Phoenix retained its November release date through the first scheduling change, but late March saw the superhero film get pushed to February 2019.

But then, just two days after the first trailer was released in late September 2018, Fox did more shuffling and set Dark Phoenix down in June 2019. With the exception of Deadpool and Logan, which hit theaters in the first quarters of their respective years, the X­-Men movies have traditionally been spring and summer releases, which makes this new strategy fall more in line with what we generally see.

While February is no longer a stranger to comic book blockbusters in the modern era, thanks to the aforementioned Deadpool and the recent, completely massive success of Black Panther, this release makes a lot more sense for the film. Rumors on the date change have suggested that the studio believes X-Men: Dark Phoenix will simply perform better then, especially in China, which went crazy for the trailer after it came out.

What Is Dark Phoenix's Rating?

Unlike the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the DC Extended Universe, the X-Men franchise has been a bit more experimental when it comes to the ratings of their comic book movies -- and it's resulted in some incredible success. Even though audiences under 18 couldn't see them without a parent or guardian, the aforementioned Deadpool and Logan both managed to bring in tons of cash appealing to more mature audiences. Because of these wins, there are now ratings conversations to be had about many developing superhero titles, but you can bet that X-Men: Dark Phoenix won't be rocking the boat.

To date, all of the main X-Men titles -- including X-Men, X2: X-Men United, X-Men: The Last Stand, X-Men: First Class, X-Men: Days of Future Past and X-Men: Apocalypse -- have all been PG-13, and that trend will continue with X-Men: Dark Phoenix. It surely will have (mostly bloodless) violence and thrilling sequences that might be too much for young viewers, but don't expect tons of gore, nudity or profanity.

Who Is Directing Dark Phoenix?

Simon Kinberg has been an important part of the X-Men world for years. He first became involved back in 2006 when he was hired to write the script for Brett Ratner's X-Men: The Last Stand, but has really been a key player ever since X-Men: First Class. Starting with that 2011 movie he has produced all of the franchises' features, and he is also a credited co-writer on X-Men: Days of Future Past and X-Men: Apocalypse. He's also done script work on Dark Phoenix, but the bigger story is the fact that he's making the film as his directorial debut.

It's not often that you see a filmmaker dipping his toe into directing with a major superhero blockbuster, but he does have a good amount of experience within the industry in the last 15 years. We can't say much for the style we expect him to bring to X-Men: Dark Phoenix, but that's just another part of what we're anticipating when we head to the theater.

What Is Dark Phoenix About?

The Dark Phoenix Saga is one of the most famous storylines in the history of Marvel Comics - which fully explains why this movie will actually be the second big screen attempt at adapting it. The franchise tried to put its own spin on the familiar narrative with X-Men: The Last Stand in 2006, but it's widely agreed that the job was botched. Following the continuity-changing events of X-Men: Days of Future Past, the movies saw an opportunity to try and tell the story again, and that's what we're getting in Simon Kinberg's X-Men: Dark Phoenix.

Set a decade after the events of X-Men: Apocalypse (following a pattern set up by the previous two movies), Dark Phoenix is set in the early 1990s, and is set in a world that has changed quite a lot. In the 1980s people everywhere knew about the existence of mutants, but now the X-Men are basically rock stars. Under the leadership of Professor X (James McAvoy), the team is known worldwide for their heroics, and celebrated for them.

All good streaks come to an end, however, and the X-Men find theirs come to a conclusion in outer space. During a cosmic mission, an accident occurs involving what they believe to be a solar flare, but this energy merges with Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) in the process. It's found it greatly enhances her powers, but the team begins to witness some serious changes in her personality, and her lack of control over her new powers.

Those familiar with the Dark Phoenix Saga from the comics -- which is an arc big enough to span two feature films -- will recognize that this doesn't exactly match up with the source material, but it certainly is a hell of a lot closer than what X-Men: The Last Stand delivered. There is still a lot that we don't know about the story take and the adaptation, but we obviously don't have long until we can learn more.

Jean Grey

Jean Grey has been an important character in the X-Men movies from the very beginning, originally played by Famke Janssen, but now she is in her second generation. While Jean was initially introduced as a teacher at Xavier's School For Gifted Youngsters, X-Men: Apocalypse was the first film in the canon to show her as a student, brought to life by Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner.

Like many of her fellow X-Men in that film, the young telepath/telekinetic was only just starting to get a handle on her special mutation when she was doing battle with Apocalypse -- but, all the same, still demonstrated some incredible power. We can assume that her abilities and her control over said abilities will be much better at the start of X-Men: Dark Phoenix (there's a lot Professor X can teach in a decade), but even those practiced strengths will be nothing compared to what she is able to do when imbued with the Phoenix Force.

As powerful as Jean is naturally, her abilities intensely escalate when she is transformed into Phoenix, to the point where she becomes one of the most powerful beings in the universe. Opening stargates, destroying matter at the subatomic level, and generating cosmic fire are only a few of the scary skills in her arsenal, but also certainly not helpful is the way that the power tends to corrupt the user.

Charles Xavier a.k.a. Professor X

Going back to X-Men: First Class, we've watched Charles Xavier a.k.a. Professor X come a long way. He earned his doctorate at the age of 30, shortly thereafter establishing Xavier's School For Gifted Youngsters, and through X-Men: Days of Future Past and X-Men: Apocalypse we've watched him evolve into the legendary leader we've always known that he would become.

By the time we catch up with him in Dark Phoenix, Professor X will have 30 years of leadership under his belt, but evidently he somewhat becomes a victim of his own bravado. He is very proud of the students that he has taught, and blissful with the reputation and popularity that the X-Men have received. There are obvious positive sides to this, but, unfortunately, the confidence also leads him to send his team into outer space for a mission that they aren't prepared for, leading to Jean Grey's accident.

As a leader and a teacher, Professor X has a very important responsibility when it comes to the X-Men, and one can imagine this mistake having a crucial impact on his arc in X-Men: Dark Phoenix. That said, he shouldn't have a ton of time to devote to self-reflection and self-flagellation if he's properly responding to the threat that the titular force represents.

Scott Summers a.k.a. Cyclops

It's no secret that the X-Men movies don't have a great track record of doing right by Scott Summers a.k.a. Cyclops. The character has been a fan favorite in the comics for decades, but on the big screen he was totally sidelined by a Wolverine-centric approach that painted him plainly as a romantic competitor for the heart of Jean Grey. It's partially because of this shortcoming that the franchise hit the restart button on Cyclops in X-Men: Apocalypse, and now they'll have the chance to properly explore the character in X-Men: Dark Phoenix, portrayed by Tye Sheridan.

Cyclops was only shown wearing his famous visor in the final moments of X-Men: Apocalypse, still learning how to control his optic blasts, but he should be a seasoned veteran with the equipment when we catch up with him. His specific role in the Dark Phoenix storyline still seems to be based on Scott's romantic bond with Jean Grey, with him trying to convince everyone she can be saved when she seems too far gone and dangerous to be allowed to live.

Ororo Munroe a.k.a. Storm

Within the post-X-Men: Days of Future Past continuity, we don't have much experience watching Ororo Munroe a.k.a. Storm as a hero. Portrayed by Alexandra Shipp in X-Men: Apocalypse, we got a glimpse of her upbringing in Egypt, but the titular villain was able to get to her far faster than Professor X. She was enlisted as one of the Four Horsemen, but the all-powerful blue mutant's Svengali-like hold over her was shattered when she saw her hero, Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) in battle. Following her change of heart, Storm started fighting alongside the X-Men, and at the end of the movie we saw her suited up as a full-fledged member of the team.

Unfortunately, that's basically where details stop in regards to what we can expect from Storm in X-Men: Dark Phoenix. Like everyone else, she will be 10 years older and wiser, and have much greater control over her abilities to control the weather, but we don't really know much more than that. Given how limited the character's time on screen has classically been -- going back to the Halle Berry era -- hopefully a nice chunk of narrative will be devoted to her.

Kurt Wagner a.k.a. Nightcrawler

We first got to see the fan-favorite teleporting mutant known as Nightcrawler up on the big screen in X2: X-Men United... but his run didn't exactly last long. Despite putting on a fantastic performance, Alan Cumming didn't return to reprise the part in X-Men: The Last Stand, and in the movie world Nightcrawler was ultimately put on ice for 13 years. That unfortunate trend ended in 2016 with Kodi Smit-McPhee playing a younger version of the character in X-Men: Apocalypse, and next we'll get to see him perform his advanced circus-like antics in Dark Phoenix.

In X-Men: Apocalypse, Nightcrawler was basically used to demonstrate that the world was accepting of his odd appearance -- but we didn't really get to learn much about him. Hopefully Simon Kinberg is able to successfully balance X-Men: Dark Phoenix as a true ensemble, and give Kurt Wagner the proper moments to shine that fans want to see, and that his legacy deserves.

Peter Maximoff a.k.a. Quicksilver

The last seventeen years have brought us an endless list of ridiculously awesome big screen superhero moments, but the usage of Evan Peters' Peter Maximoff a.k.a. Quicksilver in both X-Men: Days of Future Past and X-Men: Apocalypse are certainly near the top. Bryan Singer made impressive use of modern filmmaking technology to craft sequences unlike anything we've ever seen with a speedster character, and in doing so also happened to create two of the most memorable movie music moments of the young century. He's an exciting presence in this franchise, which is why we're stoked that he will be back in X-Men: Dark Phoenix.

The full details regarding Quicksilver's development as a character have not yet been revealed, but we can probably take a few guesses regarding where he is at. Given his personality type, one can imagine that he is absolutely loving the celebrity status that the X-Men have earned, and is happy to take advantage of it every moment that he can -- which is pretty often given the way he moves.

We'll have to wait and see if he winds up reaching out to Magneto to reveal that he is his son (if that hasn't already happened in the last decade), but that situation is made tricky given the status of Magneto at the start of Dark Phoenix, which we'll get into a bit later.

Hank McCoy a.k.a. Beast

Fans were initially disappointed when Hank McCoy a.k.a. Beast didn't make the roster for Bryan Singer's first X-Men movie, but ever since X-Men: First Class he has been a key player. Portrayed by Nicholas Hoult, we have watched the character undergo some serious change -- some quite literally -- but he's certainly developed into the hero that Marvel readers have loved for decades.

Beast will once again be back fighting the good fight in X-Men: Dark Phoenix, serving alongside Jean Grey, Cyclops, Storm, Nightcrawler, Quicksilver, and Mystique under the guidance of Professor X. Hank still seems to have control over his appearance, but we do get a lot of him totally blue and furry during the trailer, so we'll probably be treated to his natural state a lot of time, especially during the action scenes.

Raven Darkhölme a.k.a. Mystique

Similar to Wolverine, Raven Darkhölme a.k.a. Mystique wasn't always a core member of the X-Men character lineup in the comics, but the films have certainly treated her that way. Rebecca Romijn was very memorable in the original X-Men trilogy, but the fact that she has been played by A-lister Jennifer Lawrence since X-Men: First Class has kept her in the franchise's spotlight. At the end of X-Men: Apocalypse she was firmly established as one of the good guys, and apparently that's exactly where she starts at the beginning of Dark Phoenix as well.

Mystique has classically been an enemy of the X-Men, but now that she's a part of the titular team, we'll see her take on a leadership position because she's older and has been fighting longer than most of the other X-Men. It also looks like she'll handle Jean Grey's transformation into the Phoenix by pointing out some important truths to Charles, and by being a true leader and trying to help Jean even though she knows how dangerous she's become.

Erik Lehnsherr a.k.a. Magneto

At the end of X-Men: Apocalypse Michael Fassbender's Erik Lehnsherr a.k.a. Magneto aided in the reconstruction of Xavier's School For Gifted Youngsters, but he made the decision not to stick around. Having lost his wife and daughter, and nearly aiding in the destruction of the planet, he decided that it was best that he leave and start a life for himself elsewhere in the world. It's noteworthy that X-Men: Dark Phoenix will address the question of "Where?" and it turns out the answer is super interesting: the island of Genosha.

While Genosha has a bit of a spotty history in Marvel Comics, in Dark Phoenix it will be portrayed as a safe haven for mutants who can't find a home anywhere else in the world -- and it's where Magneto has worked to try and rebalance his life. He finds himself involved with the main narrative because Jean Grey seeks him out for guidance in the midst of his transformation.

The Mysterious Villain

Yes, that's a super vague heading, but the reality is that we don't have much to work with in this area. It's been confirmed that Jessica Chastain will be playing the central villain in X-Men: Dark Phoenix, but in a move that seriously increases our curiosity, the folks behind the film will not identify her character. It has been said that she is an "otherworldly shapeshifter" who is out to control the power of the Phoenix, but nothing else is known beyond that.

We just have a few day now until X-Men: Dark Phoenix is in theaters, so be sure to head out and get the rest of the answers to what this movie has in store for audiences for yourself!

Thanks to his fourth wall-breaking antics and his encyclopedia knowledge of pop culture (both in the X-Men universe and outside of it), Deadpool is a perfect terrain for cameos, if you think about it. The character knows no reverence and he likes to keep people on their toes, particularly through his fast-moving mouth. In that spirit, when it came time to make Deadpool 2, the original film's staggering popularity paved the way for a smörgåsbord of surprise guest appearances, including a few you might've missed!

Therefore, we wanted to take this opportunity to break down all the surprise cameos that were found in 2018's superhero sequel. Because even upon first or second viewing, there's a possibility that you missed a few of the film's biggest and most shocking cameos in Deadpool 2. With that, we want to let you in on the scoop. And be sure to let us know if there are any we missed. Also, it should be a given, but some of these cameos require a spoiler or two. Just a heads-up if you haven't seen the movie.

Matt Damon As "Redneck #2"

There's a very good chance that you missed Matt Damon's cameo in Deadpool 2. The actor is genuinely unrecognizable in the superhero sequel, adopting very heavy make-up, including a prosthetic nose, a fake beard and a body suit with an extended beer gut to disguise his normally-ripped physique. Damon was also not officially officially credited either, adopting the one-time pseudonym of "Dickie Greenleaf" in the credits (a reference to Damon's 1999 film, The Talented Mr. Ripley). Nevertheless, the role of "Redneck #2" was played by none other than Matt Damon himself.

While his voice might've been a giveaway for some people, there are many folks who had no clue Matt Damon was in the film. In fact, there is a good chance that some of you didn't know until you read this article. There's no judgment here; until I started writing this article, I didn't even know myself! In any case, if you skip to the 32-minute mark exactly, you will see Matt Damon in a field, throwing back beers and talking rather extensively about toilet paper with his friend before a time-traveling Cable (Josh Brolin) walks up to their car, electrocutes them and drives away with their truck.

Brad Pitt As "Vanisher"

It's a blink-and-you-miss it cameo, but at the same time, there's a good chance that Brad Pitt's surprise three-second appearance in Deadpool 2 was the biggest cameo you caught in the movie. Throughout the film, the running gag with the invisible, silent character of Vanisher is that it's unclear if he actually exists or if he's just a bunch of empty space. But when the X-Force find themselves killed in increasingly graphic ways due to Deadpool's miscalculations with the wind, there is a brief moment where Vanisher's parachute is caught in the wind, causing him to be electrocuted, then burst into flames.

In that moment, which occurs 73 minutes into the film, we finally get a visible glance at Vanisher. And it's revealed to be none other than Brad Pitt. Because the cameo is so fast, there might be reason to believe that it's just a CG-ed version of the actor, but it appears that it was actually Brad Pitt. Somehow, the filmmakers found time in the A-lister's very busy schedule for the actor to make quick (but very memorable) appearance in the film.

James McAvoy As "Charles Xavier"

One of the best recurring jokes in the original Deadpool movie is the often-commented absence of actual X-Men in this X-Men property. There are only two other characters from the series who made appearances in that film, and Deadpool is often disgruntled by their non-appearances in his film. Sure enough, when it came time for the much-anticipated sequel, which was accompanied with a bigger budget and a higher profile release, there was the strong likelihood of at least a few well-known X-Men making an appearance. But their cameos needed to fit the style of the film, and the filmmakers wanted to honor the winking satire that is crucial to the film's irreverent success.

So, yes, Charles Xavier does make an appearance in Deadpool 2. However, Deadpool himself never gets to meet the character. 29 minutes into the sequel, while the title character is babbling on about the lack of X-Men found in the house, it's revealed that Charles Xavier and several other X-Men are indeed there, but they're intentionally avoiding contact with the foul-mouthed merchant. It's a single shot and another sequence where if you turn your head at the wrong time, you'll miss it entirely. But for the fans who were paying close attention, you got your chance to see several high-profile X-Men, even if Deadpool himself missed his chance to get acquainted.

Nicolas Hoult As "Beast"

Similar to James McAvoy's Professor X, Nicholas Hoult's Beast was also in the X-Men residence as Deadpool was ranting about the dearth of X-Men to be found in his movies. He was the one who was the closest to the sliding door and the one who heard Deadpool coming their way, as the Merc with a Mouth made his long-winded spiel about his movies making more money than the person who invented pants.

The blue mutant ultimately wasted no time trying to discreetly close the doors in the hopes that Deadpool wouldn't discover their appearance. And it seems like he did it successfully, as Deadpool was none the wiser about them being right beside him. Since he's in the center frame, there's a good chance you saw Beast. Nevertheless, it was a surprise — and welcome — cameo, even if Deadpool himself didn't know about it.

Evan Peters As "Quicksilver"

In addition to Beast and Professor X, Deadpool also missed his opportunity to meet Quicksilver. The scene-stealer was in the room with several other X-Men during the aforementioned cameo-filled sequence, and ironically he wasn't quick to close the door when Deadpool was threatening to find more X-Men in the residence. Nevertheless, while the cameo went by in a flash, Evan Peters was there. And gone.

Tye Sheridan As "Cyclops"

Tye Sheridan's Cyclops hasn't been seen much in the X-Men universe. Beyond his appearance in X-Men: Apocalypse, his character has otherwise been played by James Marsden in the first three movies. But we'll get a better chance at seeing Sheridan's take on the character when he appears in this summer's long-delayed Dark Phoenix. And in the meantime, he got a chance to play the role (in very brief fashion) during this cameo with his fellow X-Men in hiding.

Alexandra Shipp As "Storm"

Similar to Tye Sheridan, Alexandra Shipp has played her variation of Storm for only a brief window of time. But we'll see her take on a bigger role in this summer's X-Men: Dark Phoenix. And she made a cameo in Deadpool 2, smirking in the corner as Deadpool was trying to find his fellow X-Men.

Kodi-Smit McPhee As "Nightcrawler"

Much like his other two X-Men: Apocalypse co-stars, Kodi-Smit McPhee is still fairly newly acquainted to the X-Men universe. But he was among the X-Men seen (in hiding) during this memorable sequence in Deadpool 2.

Alan Tudyk as "Luke, i.e. Redneck #1"

Also in this scene, if a little more recognizable than his co-star Matt Damon, is Alan Tudyk. The actor is given less of a disguise (basically just a bandana) and he doesn't have as many lines as his scene partner. But he does get a name: Luke, though the shortly-seen character is also referred to as "Redneck #1." Considering that their on-screen conversation is filled with extensive potty humor, those numerals are probably intentional.

Luke, i.e. "Redneck #1," doesn't get as much to do in this cameo as his famous co-star. And considering that Alan Tudyk isn't as much of a household name as Matt Damon, that might not be surprising. Nevertheless, the cameo is certainly a fun one, and definitely an unexpected one, for fans of the veteran character actor and prominent voice actor.

Ryan Reynolds as "Juggernaut"

This one might not technically qualify as a cameo, since Juggeranut plays a prominent role in the third act. But there's a good chance that people do not know that in addition to his role as Wade Wilson/Deadpool, Reynolds also provided his voice to the role of Juggernaut. Making his first official appearance around 82 minutes into the film, Juggeranut becomes the final foe for which Deadpool must defeat. And it's hard for him to do so, not only due to his massive size and figure, but because Deadpool is constantly geeking out at the sight of such a titan in the comics.

While Juggernaut is typically a man of few words, he does speak from time to time throughout Deadpool 2, and when he does speak, his voice is lent by Ryan Reynolds in the surprise turn. Juggernaut was previously introductied into the X-Men movies in X-Men: The Last Stand. Much like Deadpool himself, he was given a second chance with Deadpool 2. So it's perhaps only fitting that Reynolds provided his voice to the oversized part as well.

Whew. There are all the big name cameos we caught in Deadpool 2. However, if you caught any other discreetly hidden cameos, feel free to let us know what is missing from our ranking in the comment section. And we'll be sure to keep you posted on all the latest movie news — X-Men related and otherwise — right here at CinemaBlend.

The superhero genre is in an interesting place right now, as there are a ton of moving parts coming from the myriad studios producing comic book adaptations. The Marvel Cinematic Universe as we know it will end with Avengers: Endgame, while Dark Phoenix may be the swan song of the long running X-Men franchise. Because with Disney's acquisition of 20th Century Fox is official, with the House of Mouse in control of all future X-Men projects.

Comic book fans are eager to see the X-Men join the greater Marvel Cinematic Universe, although it's unclear how/when that might happen. Will Disney utilize some of the current cast, or start totally fresh with the iconic mutants? Alexandra Shipp is the current Storm of the X-Men franchise, set to reprise her role in Dark Phoenix. But she's not sure she'd want to join the MCU, believing it would push her character further into the background. As she recently put it:

Well, that's one way of putting it. Sasquatch aside, Storm hasn't typically been the protagonist of the X-Men movies. So Alexandra Shipp may have valid concerns about joining an even bigger pool of iconic heroes.

Alexandra Shipp's comments come from a recent round table discussion at WonderCon (via LRM). While gearing up for her second appearance as Storm in the X-Men franchise, she also took the time to lament the character's fate in the franchise overall. While the Weather Witch is an iconic character that has already appeared an impressive five times in live-action, Ororo Munroe has never really taken the spotlight onscreen. That isn't expected to change in Dark Phoenix either, at least if Shipp's statements are any indication.

The Love, Simon actress does have a point, and highlights the potential problem with bringing the X-Men to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The MCU has grown exponentially over the first decade of filmmaking, and there are a ton of heroes already in play. Just look as the massive ensemble cast of Avengers: Infinity War. And while some OG Avengers are set to depart the franchise after Endgame, there still doesn't seem to be enough room to add a large group of heroes into the mix. Even ones as iconic as the X-Men.

Storm is a beloved X-Man, and one that has had a fascinating life in theaters. While she's been more of a supporting character in the X-Men franchise, perhaps she could become a larger presence once the character is brought into the MCU. Although whether or not Alexandra Shipp will be offered the opportunity to stay on (and whether she'd take it) is another conversation entirely.

Alexandra Shipp's comments about Storm are brutally honest, but she's not wrong. The mutant character may have been in the X-Men franchise since Bryan Singer's original 2000 flick, but that doesn't mean she's gotten nearly as much screen time as Wolverine or Jean Grey. Originally played by Halle Berry, she was a supporting presence in the first two X-Men movies, failing to really progress or develop as a character. And while Scott and Professor X's deaths in X-Men: The Last Stand let Berry get a few more lines, the character still didn't really go anywhere.

X-Men: Apocalypse welcomed Alexandra Shipp's version of the character, as a younger mutant girl trying to survive in Egypt. After being given more power by the titular villain, Storm was one of Apocalypse's four horsemen of death, helping him in his quest to end the world. But she eventually saw the error in her ways, and joined the good guys in the final moments of the battle. She was last seen in the Danger Room with the new team of X-Men as Apocalypse concluded.

Despite having only one movie under her belt, Storm's showing in Apocalypse is arguably the most complex version we've gotten on screen. It should be interesting to see how Ororo Munroe changes during the course of Dark Phoenix. She's been with the team for a decade, so Storm should have specific relationships with each of her fellow mutants. And when the Phoenix Force takes control of Jean Grey, the conflict will split the X-Men.

Alexandra Shipp has teased that Storm will get to really unleash her weather manipulation mutation during Dark Phoenix, so we should expect some pulse pounding action from the upcoming blockbuster. She's been shown flying and firing electric bolts from her hands, and mourning during Mystique's funeral at the X-Mansion. She also has a chilling warning in a recent trailer, teasing she may be against Jean once dark cosmic power consumes her.

It should be fascinating to see what Marvel Studios ends up doing with the X-Men, now that Disney has the rights to the characters. Will they slowly trickle in mutant characters to existing franchises, like the founding Avengers were individually introduced before their crossover movie? Or will the studio go the more classic route, and assemble a new class of X-Men to introduce in an ensemble film? The MCU managed to start a new Spider-Man franchise just years after the Andrew Garfield movies, so anything is possible.

Dark Phoenix is hitting theaters this June, but it's unclear if any other planned X-Men movies will ever make it to theaters. This includes Josh Boone's The New Mutants, which has already been pushed back a number of times. The horror inspired blockbuster has yet to commence reshoots, and not even the cast seems to know what's going on how if/when the movie will be released. With Disney+ starting up shortly, some believe New Mutants may end up on the streaming platform. But hopefully reshoots will occur first, so the film could be actually completed.

Alexandra Shipp will make her sophomore appearance as Storm in Dark Phoenix on June 7th. In the meantime, check out our 2019 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.

Since the Disney-Fox merger finally became official as of a couple weeks ago, the mutants of X-Men could join the ranks of the MCU someday. Among the many potential pairings that have been suggested among fans between Avengers and X-Men is the striking romance between Black Panther and Storm but according to Dark Phoenix’s Storm actress, Alexandra Shipp, just because Disney can now make this happen, it doesn’t mean they should. In her words:

Looks like Chadwick Boseman T’Challa is getting the cold shoulder from the X-Men actress, but for a valid, industry-forward reason. During a roundtable interview at WonderCon (via LRM Online,) Alexandra Shipp showed her distaste with her character’s future plotline to revolve around a romance between Storm and Black Panther because she thinks the weather-controlling hero needs her own movie. Though it should be noted that Black Panther has been around since 1966, and Storm debuted on the printed page nine years later.

It’s a tiresome plotline for the women of Marvel Comics to be consistently defined as the men in their lives, one that Captain Marvel recently made a conscience effort to steer away from. Alexandra Shipp previously echoed this statement last year when asked about her ideas for a spinoff for the powerful mutant character with these comments:

However, with a the addition of the X-Men to the MCU imminent, T’Challa and Ororo’s romance would be an intriguing way for the two teams to intersect and form an alliance. In the comic books, the two meet as children when Storm flees Cairo following her parents’ deaths and comes across Wakanda. Storm rescues T’Challa from being kidnapped and a love story ignites. When they are older, the pair get married with both the X-Men and Avengers in attendance though it’s a short-lived union.

Six years into it, they were put at odds for the Avengers vs. X-Men event. When her team of mutants do damage to Wakanda, Black Panther blames her for it and they get a divorce. Seeing some of this drama play out would certainly be interesting as the hero becomes more prevalent in the MCU and the possibility of the addition of X-Men in the MCU will likely be tinkered with.

Us’ Evan Alex even recently volunteered himself up to play the son of Black Panther and Ororo in a Black Panther sequel to Vulture after playing the son to Black Panther’s M’Baku, Winston Duke, in the Jordan Peele horror film. To Alexandra Shipp, Storm’s addition to the MCU would just place her even farther into the background then she already is in the current X-Men franchise. Here’s what she said:

The actress certainly isn’t afraid to tell it like it is but she’s right. As is, the upcoming Avengers: Endgame film looks so packed with characters that some will likely have one or two lines. Add in a crew of mutants and there would be so many heroes on the big screen that there just wouldn’t be a way to do each of the characters justice.

At WonderCon, 20 minutes of X-Men: Dark Phoenix footage was also showcased ahead of the film’s release on June 7. What do you think about Alexandra Shipp’s comments? Would you like to see a Storm solo flick or her romance with T’Challa on screen? What about how the Avengers and X-Men could share the big screen? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

It's no secret that the comic book genre is the most profitable in Hollywood right now. But in the past few years, there has been an especially loud call for the the genre to be more inclusive, and tell diverse stories. Wonder Woman made history for a female-led movie, while Marvel will answer the call with Captain Marvel and Ant-Man and the Wasp. But when will the X-Men movie get a female led movie? Actress Alexandra Shipp took on the mantle of Storm from Halle Berry in X-Men: Apocalypse, and she's got a few ideas for how to make Storm into a standalone film protagonist.

Much like Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman, it seems like Alexandra Shipp wants to star as an independent female hero who doesn't need the help of a man. So rather than looking at stories of love for X-Men's Storm, she believes a more internal journey might be the best choice for the weather witch's potential spinoff.

Alexandra Shipp's comments to THR are sure to be exciting for the hardcore X-Men fans out there. While Storm has been a major character throughout the X-Men franchise's long tenure on the silver screen, Ororo Munroe has never been truly fleshed out. Halle Berry's characterization changed accents and haircuts with each film and kicked ass, but her emotional arc never really moved the story forward. Despite already appearing in five movies, Storm is still a criminally underused member of the team.

But the X-Men franchise has just adopted a new Storm in Alexandra Shipp, and therefore has the opportunity to go further with the character than ever before. She was brought into the narrative during X-Men: Apocalypse, serving as one of the title character's Four Horsemen. Eventually Storm saw the error in her ways, and united against Apocalypse in the film's final battle. She was last seen wearing an awesome new X-Men suit in the Danger Room, and Shipp is set to reprise her role in Dark Phoenix.

While Alexandra Shipp clarified that there weren't any talks of a Storm movie happening, she also expressed her devotion to making it happen, saying:

Now that she's a member of the team, it should be interesting to see how the character continues to develop in X-Men: Dark Phoenix. Hopefully we'll get a better sense of who Ororo Munroe is in the new timeline, in addition to see her awesome mutant abilities at work. But with Sophie Turner's Jean Grey presumably taking up much of the film's screen time, it'll be a task to get the rest of the team properly featured as well.

X-Men: Dark Phoenix will arrive in theaters on February 14, 2019. In the meantime, check out our 2018 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.

The X-Men have gone through different iterations on the big screen over the years, and we'll see them back in action when X-Men: Dark Phoenix hits theaters later in 2018. Among the actors and actresses set to appear in Dark Phoenix is Alexandra Shipp, who will be reprising her role as Storm in the upcoming movie. During a recent appearance on Conan the actress revealed that while she liked doing Storm's various stunts for X-Men: Apocalypse, they had one unintended side effect: totally numbing her crotch region. Of her lady bits, the actress said:

Although I've worn a harness for zip-lining previously, Alexandra Shipp's issue is not one I have previously encountered, so I'm not sure if this is something a lot of ladies deal with while climbing, etc? Conan O'Brien seemed briefly stumped as to how to respond to her comments, too, but he eventually cracked a self-deprecating joke about "putting other vaginas to sleep." Apparently, though, Shipp spent enough time in a harness that it caused some major problems down south--and from what she had to say about the experience, it may have been something Halle Berry also had to deal with when she played Storm in some of Fox's earlier X-Men movies. She did also note though that stunts can be fun, and that it's "warm and fuzzy" when she gets to throw make-believe punches and the stunt people react to her. So, there's both good and bad stuff she seems to have taken out of those moments.

Those familiar with Storm in the MCU should know that while her main focus is messing with the weather, part of her abilities include flying, which is likely where the harness work comes in for Alexandra Shipp. Shipp may have even more time to shine in X-Men: Dark Phoenix, as she didn't officially join the X-Men until the end of X-Men: Apocalypse. Any additional screentime coming up likely means more additional numb time, but don't take my word for it. You can see Alexandra Shipp telling the story, herself.

Alexandra Shipp will be back in action when X-Men: Dark Phoenix hits theaters on November 2, 2018. To find out what else is in store for the movie, you can take a look at what we know about the upcoming flick. And, of course, you can catch some X-Men action when Deadpool 2 hits theaters on May 18.

Many X-Men fans have clamored for years about how they want the mutant superheroes to be brought into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and now it looks like they'll finally have their wish granted. Earlier this week, Disney officially announced its purchase of 21st Century Fox's entertainment holdings, which would mean that after nearly 20 years of the X-Men properties being a self-contained superhero franchise, these characters would finally be able to team up with the likes of Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk and more, just like they do in the comics. For Alexandra Ship, a.k.a. the current Storm, joining the MCU is an exciting prospect, as she relayed below.

It's still far too soon to tell what Disney's exact plans will be for the X-Men characters will be outside of simply incorporating them into the MCU, but if the current X-Men cast is kept for this transition, Alexandra Shipp relayed to her Twitter followers that not only would she be game for making that jump, she'd also be down for a team-up with Thor, a fellow hero who has a talent for conjuring lightning. There is a time period complication with making this work, as Shipp's Storm and her fellow "First Class" characters are operating decades before the modern MCU. It seems more likely that Disney will cast new actors to play the X-Men heroes and villains, but that doesn't mean the studio couldn't find a way to incorporate the existing lineup into the MCU, such as having the X-Men characters live in an alternate reality. And hey, even if Shipp doesn't get to play Storm in the MCU, that doesn't mean she couldn't join as a different character, just like Human Torches Chris Evans and Michael B. Jordan did.

Alexandra Shipp debuted as Storm in X-Men: Apocalypse last year, inheriting the role from Halle Berry, who delivered her last Storm performance in X-Men: Days of Future Past. Storm, a.k.a. Orono Munroe, was recruited by Apocalypse to be one of his Four Horsemen, but seeing her master abandon Angel, her fellow Horseman, and nearly kill the X-Men, she switched sides and helped the mutant superheroes defeat the ancient Egyptian powerhouse. By the end of the movie, she was an official X-Man, and we'll reunite with her and her teammates late next year in X-Men: Dark Phoenix, which is set a decade later and will see Jean Grey succumbing to the Phoenix Force... again.

You can see Alexandra Shipp back in action as Storm when X-Men: Dark Phoenix comes out on November 2, 2018. Don't forget to look through our 2018 premiere guide to see what other movies will be released next year, and stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more news on how this Disney and Fox deal will affect the X-Men franchise.

For all of the innovative work that we have seen in the horror genre over the last few years, it's still arguably a style of film drenched in cliche. With that in mind, I recently sat down with director Tyler MacIntyre and actress Alexandra Shipp to talk about how their new film, Tragedy Girls, avoids those potential pitfalls. The conversation inevitably turned to horror tropes that have become played out and no longer work, and Shipp explained that the image of a half-naked woman running, tripping, and getting murdered isn't sufficient anymore. The X-Men star explained:

If you have seen a horror movie in recent years, then you have probably seen some variation of that sequence. Even a film as inventive and well-received as It Follows opens with a girl inexplicably running from "It" while wearing high heels. In the face of such repetition, Alexandra Shipp seems to think that it's time for a change. It could be a scantily-clad male character (even Kevin Bacon has said we need to see more penises in movies) running from the killer, or it could be the woman turning to stand her ground and "beat up that scary shit," but the convention needs to be turned on its head.

It's easy to see how this trope has become played out. Even the original Scary Movie (which, and prepare to feel old, came out in 2000) was able to recognize it.

Warning: possible spoilers ahead for Tragedy Girls! You've been warned!

Following the explanation of Alexandra Shipp's gripe about half-naked women running away from killers and screaming, Tyler MacIntyre chimed in to explain that this was something that they specifically endeavored to avoid in Tragedy Girls. In fact, they even have fun with it in the film's opening scene by having Sadie (Deadpool actress Brianna Hildebrand) run and scream from knife-wielding serial killer Lowell (Kevin Durand) as a way to lure him into a trap. She's aware of the cliche, and she uses it to her advantage. MacIntyre said:

When viewed through that lens, it's hard not to think that Tragedy Girls is doing something very similar to the late Wes Craven's Scream with regards to how it skewers the slasher genre -- albeit in a very different, millennial way. There's a noticeable awareness of horror cliches in how MacIntyre constructed this film, and Tragedy Girls leans into it by willingly spoofing the Lovers Lane story that we have all come to recognize. Now it's just a matter of waiting to see whether or not other horror franchises will catch on and follow suit and put this cliche to rest.

Tragedy Girls is currently out in theaters, so make sure to check out the subversive take on the slasher genre for yourself! Looking beyond this latest entry in the horror world, be sure to take a look at CinemaBlend's 2017 movie premiere guide and 2018 movie premiere guide to see what else the next year has in store on the silver screen.

As the first major comic book movie franchise to gain a real sense of traction at the global box office, the X-Men series has seldom shied away from trying new things. Though it has honored the idea of the heroes that inspire its films for quite some time, these movies have also made some changes in their adaptation of the source material. However, that may soon change, as Storm actress Alexandra Shipp recently opened up about X-Men: Dark Phoenix and admitted that the franchise is about to go in a darker and more comic book accurate direction. Shipp addressed Dark Phoenix while promoting the release of her new horror comedy, Tragedy Girls, saying:

Alexandra Shipp's comments about an accurate version of The Dark Phoenix Saga to Syfy Wire very much feels like a way of letting fans know that director Simon Kinberg intends to fix a franchise mistake. As most of you likely remember, X-Men: The Last Stand loosely adapted the iconic storyline back in 2006, and that film has since gone on to become widely regarded as one of the worst X-Men movies in the franchise. The soft reboot brought on by recent X-Men films has given the franchise another chance to get it right. With that in mind, it sounds like a more faithful version of the storyline (one that may even include aliens) is a big step towards making that a reality.

The promise of an "accurate" X-Men movie should be enough to get any self-respecting fan of the comic book source material excited. When compared to other superhero franchises, the X-Men universe has rarely shown qualms about moving away from the comics to alter storylines. It made Wolverine the main protagonist in X-Men: Days of Future Past (instead of Kitty Pryde); it made substantial changes to the Old Man Logan story with the release of James Mangold's Logan earlier this year, and it used Jennifer Lawrence's increasing star power to turn Mystique into one of the franchise's central heroes (which is not the case in the comics). Some of these changes have worked quite well in the grand scheme of things, but the choice to bring X-Men: Dark Phoenix's story more in-line with the dark and tragic source material seems to promise a nice break from the traditional status quo of the X-Men films.

X-Men: Dark Phoenix is currently lined up to debut on November 2, 2018, following the April 13, 2018 premiere of New Mutants and the June 1, 2018 premiere of Deadpool 2. If you're in the market for more information on all of the films set to debut over the next year (X-Men related or otherwise), then check out our 2017 movie premiere guide and 2018 movie premiere guide.

One reason we’re excited for Bryan Singer’s X-Men: Apocalypse is because the sequel gives new actors the chance to step into familiar roles that have been played by iconic performers over the years. We’re getting younger versions of Cyclops, Jean Grey, Nightcrawler and Storm – X-Men who were part of Singer’s first few X-Men movies, and are getting a unique opportunity to reset because of the events of X-Men: Days of Future Past. That doesn’t mean that the past wants to help the present, however. Sometimes, the past just wants to move on. Need a brush up on everything that happened in the X-Men saga prior to Apocalypse? We have you covered, so just click here. 

Or so it seems, for when Alexandra Shipp, the new Storm, reached out to Halle Berry, the original Storm, for some superhero advice, she reportedly didn’t get a reply. Shipp shares this anecdote with Yahoo Movies, but quickly defends Berry and even shoulders some of the blame for HOW she might have reached out and asked for assistance. Word of advice? Don’t sound like a crazy person:

Yeah, we can see why Halle Berry might have hit delete on that email… if her people even let it through. Even still, I’m not sure what Berry could have told Alexandra Shipp about playing Storm that isn’t already on the screen. Berry played the weather-controlling mutant in numerous X-Men films, even giving a small cameo role to Days of Future Past. And if Shipp really wanted to know the proper way to play Storm, she could have referenced the comic books, where Ororo Munroe has been gracing the pages of Marvel’s superhero stories since May 1975. Isn’t that a better inspiration?

All of the being said, Alexandra Shipp explained to Yahoo that it was important for her NOT to turn this Storm into a Halle Berry impersonation, summarizing:

Did she succeed? We can find out when X-Men: Apocalypse hits theaters on May 27, with Alexandra Shipp as Storm, one of the Four Horsemen of the new Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac).

While Storm is one of the better known X-Men characters, and one we’ve gotten to know well through several of the previous movies, the Storm that we meet in X-Men: Apocalypse will be a very different story. For starters, she’s not being played by Halle Berry, but instead by Alexandra Shipp. Secondly, she won’t be playing one of our heroes, but instead one of Apocalypse's Four Horsemen. Now, the actress has sent out a picture of herself from the set in a fairly interesting locale.

Alexandra Shipp marked the image as behind the scenes in her Twitter post, which says that this particular picture isn’t something we will see on screen. Still, we’re sure that wherever she is, is a location that we’ll see somewhere in the film. The disaster in the background looks remarkably orderly, like she’s standing in a junkyard of some kind. Although, we have to say the actress makes standing among a lot of junk look remarkably regal. While this may be a "behind the scenes" photo, we hope she posed for it intentionally. If she stood around on the set the entire time looking like that, things may have gotten weird.

While we know that Storm will be one of the followers of Apocalypse in the film, along with Psylocke, Angel, and Magneto, we don’t really know much else about the character beyond that. She was described as having gone down the "wrong path" at one point, though that was a bit of an understatement, coming as it did before we knew she was an outright villain. Considering the importance that the character tends to play in the proper X-Men universe we’re guessing she’s the most likely among the group to question the side she has chosen. However, since the only villains given any lines in the trailers so far have been Oscar Isaac’s titular character, and Michael Fassbender’s Magneto, we know very little about the rest of the Horsemen.

While the background behind Storm doesn’t look particularly familiar when compared to the trailers for X-Men: Apocalypse, the fact is that rampant destruction seems to be surrounding pretty much everything we do see, and with a little post production work it’s possible that the image above could have been taken around the same time as the one below.

Where does X-Men: Apocalypse fall on your comic book movie priority list? What do you think of the new, younger, Storm so far? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

The future of the main X-Men movies remains murky following X-Men: Apocalypse, but the cinematic universe itself isn’t done with team adventures. One of the spinoffs in development is New Mutants, based on the same-named comic book that featured students from Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters getting their start as mutant superheroes. While New Mutants doesn’t have a release date yet, development is already underway, and the project appears to have found three potential leads, according to a rumor.

These casting rumors come from HitFix, who report that the New Mutants lineup will mostly look like the one from the team’s early years in the comics. However, there will also be some familiar faces, both young and old, from earlier movies, if this rumor pans out. Here are the three actresses we can expect to see together, according to one report.

First up is Maisie Williams, best known as Arya Stark on Game of Thrones (though she also recently had a guest stint on Doctor Who). She is reportedly playing Rahne Sinclair, a.k.a. Wolfsbane, who, as her name suggests, can shape shift into a wolf-like creature at will. Williams is the second "Stark" from Game of Thrones to join the X-Men universe, following Sophie Turner, who is playing Jean Grey in X-Men: Apocalypse.

Next, The Witch’s Anya Taylor-Joy will be playing Illyana Rasputin, a.k.a. Magik. In the comics, Magik not only had the mutant ability to teleport, but was also a skilled sorceress. Ilyana is also the younger sister of Colossus, who was played by Daniel Curdmore in three of the main X-Men movies and voiced by Stefan Kapi?i? in Deadpool. However, given the time period of when New Mutants seemingly takes place (you’ll see what I mean), it looks like those siblings will be in a similar situation to what’s going on with Havok and Cyclops in this universe, i.e. reversal of age.

Finally, we have Alexandra Shipp as Ororo Munroe, a.k.a. Storm. Shipp, who inherits the role from Halle Berry, is making her first appearance as the weather manipulator in X-Men: Apocalypse this May. Although that movie features her as one of Apocalypse’s Four Horsemen, it appears she’ll indeed join the good guys afterwards. Storm wasn’t a member of the New Mutants in the comics, but given her young age, she’ll fit in well with the team.

In addition to these three, the article mentions that Cannonball, Sunspot, and Mirage will be included as New Mutants team members. James McAvoy is also said to play a "significant role" as Professor Charles Xavier, reprising the telepathic mentor following the "First Class" trilogy. His inclusion, along with Shipp’s, almost certainly means that the New Mutants movie will take place a few months or years after the 1983-set X-Men: Apocalypse. However, the basic premise remains the same: Xavier’s students learning how to use their abilities for the greater good.

Directed and co-written by Josh Boone, there’s no word yet on when we can expect to see New Mutants, but stay tuned for any updates regarding its development.

By the time that 2016 is over, we will have seen hundreds of new movies released to the masses – some starring popular names and recognizable faces, and others comprised entirely of up-and-comers looking to leave their mark on the industry. From all of those titles, we expect to see multiple standout performances, some coming from actors who we’ve never really heard anything about. Obviously this field will be filled with a lot of surprises that we don’t see coming, but there are certain performers who we definitely have our eye on going into the new year.

Going through the 2016 release calendar, we’ve put together a list of 10 lesser-known names who we think are going to wind up leaving an interesting mark on the cinematic year. Read on to find out our choices!

Brianna Hildebrand (Deadpool)

All of the footage we’ve seen from Deadpool has suggested that the film will be packed to the brim with all kinds of hilarity and insanity – mostly courteous of star Ryan Reynolds – but we expect big things from Brianna Hildebrand’s Negasonic Teenage Warhead. We’re not entirely clear on what her character’s abilities are, but her part as an angst-y, goth teen should work great as a foil to the ridiculousness of the titular Merc With The Mouth.

Cyrus Arnold (Zoolander 2)

We were actually introduced to young Derek Zoolander Jr. in the final moments of Ben Stiller’s 2001 comedy Zoolander, but in Zoolander 2 he’s all grown up and turned into young actor Cyrus Arnold. It’s true that we haven’t seen much of the character in footage just yet, but surely Stiller must have seen something significant in him to cast him within such a star-packed ensemble, and the young actor should have a fun geeky role to play opposite his idiotic fictional father.

Anya Taylor Joy (The Witch)

There are still a few high-profile movie from the 2015 indie film festival circuit coming out in the next year, but The Witch is easily one of the most buzzed about. A horror film set in colonial New England, the story follows Anya Taylor Joy as a young girl who finds her family set upon by the evil of a witch. The feature is incredibly dedicated to its period setting, and Joy has already earned high marks for her performance.

Jaeden Lieberher (Midnight Special)

With films like Take Shelter and Mud, Jeff Nichols has firmly established himself as a director to watch – and in his last film demonstrated an impressive ability to work with child actors. It’s for this reason that we have high expectations for Jaeden Lieberher in the sci-fi thriller Midnight Special. He demonstrated impressive talent with his performance alongside Bill Murray in 2014’s St. Vincent, and we expect a lot from him as Michael Shannon’s gifted son in the new movie.

Neel Sethi (The Jungle Book)

It was all the way back in July of 2014 that Neel Sethi landed the hotly-pursued role of Mowgli in director Jon Favreau’s live-action adaptation of The Jungle Book - and now that the movie is about to come out, the young actor is on the verge of stardom. From what we’ve seen, the film looks absolutely beautiful, and obviously Mowgli is the key character in the story. If Sethi can impress, the sky is the limit.

Lana Condor (X-Men: Apocalypse)

Bryan Singer has assembled a talented group of young actors to play the young mutants who will likely play key roles in the X-Men franchise beyond X-Men: Apocalypse, but Lana Condor is one star that has caught our curiosity. She doesn’t have any professional credits just yet, and as Jubilee will be introducing a brand new character – so there is real opportunity for her to leave an indelible mark. We’re staying positive and hoping that she does.

Alexandra Shipp (X-Men: Apocalypse)

That’s right: 2016 looks like it’s going to be a big year for young actors joining the X-Men universe. Playing Storm in X-Men: Apocalypse, Alexandra Shipp steps into a very interesting position, as fans never really did take to the performances of Halle Berry. That being said, Storm is a very important character in this franchise, and Shipp is now in a position to become the best live-action version of the weather-controlling mutant.

Madison Wolfe (The Conjuring 2 : The Enfield Poltergeist)

Director James Wan is returning to the world of horror this summer with the sequel The Conjuring 2 : The Enfield Poltergeist, and while Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga will surely be back front and center, the young Madison Wolfe is a talent you should keep an eye on. Playing Janet Hodgson in the adaptation of the famed Entfield Poltergeist story, she’s has a key role to play in the movie’s plot, and could surprise us all.

Travis Fimmel (Warcraft)

At 36 years old, Travis Fimmel is a bit older than all of the other actors on this list, and it’s true that he has the television show Vikings… but we predict that it will be his big screen role as Anduin Lothar in Duncan Jones’ Warcraft that will really make him a superstar. The large-scale fantasy epic is aiming to make a big impact this summer, and as the human lead he’s in position to earn a lot of attention.

Jessie Usher (Independence Day: Resurgence)

Given that Jessie Usher is playing the son of one of the biggest action movie stars of the 1990s, there’s certainly a good amount of expectation for his role in Roland Emmerich’s Independence Day: Resurgence. We don’t exactly expect him to match the charisma of Will Smith’s Capt. Steven Heller (that would just be unfair), but if utilized properly he could be a real stand-out (which is saying something when you look at the talented ensemble cast).

What would an updated Baywatch reboot be without a bunch of hunky dudes with six pack in shorts and attractive young women in bathing suits running in slow motion? Not Baywatch is what it would be without those things. While we know at least two of guys who will show off their muscled physiques, we haven’t heard much about casting on the female side of thing, at least until now.

Paramount is reportedly ready to hit the beach, and hit it hard. According to a new report from Deadline, the studio has its eye on seven potential actresses who could join Zac Efron and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson in the lifeguard tower for what is said to be a comedic take on the wildly popular television show. The plot as we know it revolves around the group of lifeguards taking on a wealthy industrialist to prevent environmental catastrophe on the beach. And here are the some of the young women who may help save the day.

Alexandra Daddario

Alexandra Daddario has popped up in everything from HBO’s True Detective to the young adult adaptations of the popular Percy Jackson novels. She teamed up with The Rock for the mega-disaster flick San Andreas earlier this year, and as the two have a working relationship, perhaps this gives her a leg up in this race.

Ashley Benson

Pretty Little Liars, Ashley Benson has proven that she’s comfortable working as part of an ensemble, which is definitely the vibe that Baywatch is putting out there. She’s recently appeared in Spring Breakers, and isn’t afraid to push boundaries, and in the Adam Sandler-fronted video game alien invasion comedy Pixels last summer.

Nina Dobrev

Being cast as a lifeguard who hangs out on the beach, and in the sun, all day would definitely be a different animal that what Nina Dobrev is used to in her regular gig as part of the cast of Vampire Diaries. The Bulgarian-born actress has recently shown up in indies like The Perks of Being a Wallflower, horror send up The Final Girls, and raucous comedy Let’s Be Cops.

Alexandra Shipp

Alexandra Shipp has already had a big year, appearing in the hit NWA biopic Straight Outta Compton, and with a role in the upcoming X-Men: Apocalypse, her profile is only going to skyrocket. She plays Storm/Ororo Munroe in the upcoming superhero adventure, and there’s probably no pressure taking over a role from Halle Berry or anything, right?

Shelly Hennig

Starting out on daytime soap opera Days of Our Lives, Shelly Hennig dove into the horror deep end recently. She has a recurring role on MTV’s Teen Wolf, which is better than most of us expected it to be, had a role in Ouija, and fronted the somewhat experimental social media-themed frightener Unfriended last year. Also better than we thought. Maybe it’s time to add some sun to that resume.

Bianca Santos

Another Ouija alum, Bianca Santos has had a busy last couple of years. She’s had recurring roles on TV series The Fosters and Happyland, and had a notable part in this year’s hit teen comedy The DUFF. She has a number of projects in the works, including the awesomely named horror joint Little Dead Rotting Hood coming next year.

Denyse Tontz

21-year-old Denyse Tontz has worked primarily in episodic television. While she’s had recurring roles on everything from All My Children and Dog with a Blog, she’s probably best known for her role on Big Time Rush. She’s also done one-off on any number of shows, including Bones, Workaholics, Melissa & Joey, and the new Dallas.

A big part of the reason why superheroes movies are so successful now is because technology in Hollywood has gotten to a point where visual wonders from comics can be recreated in a moment with the help of a computer. That wizardry is front and center in this brand new X-Men: Apocalypse set photo, which creates an Egyptian landscape out of almost nothing:

Director Bryan Singer has shared his latest behind-the-scenes look at the new comic book on his Instagram page, and it really does an amazing job showing off just how far visual effects have come in recent years. What sits in front of Alexandra Shipp in this shot is simply green screen environments, but with the help of special software and hardware the film's director can immediately get a sense of what the final shot will look like in the finished cut of the movie while he's still shooting it.

The X-Men: Apocalypse filmmaker has already shown us a number of shots set in 1983 Cairo, Egypt - but the fact that the movie will have a number of scenes set there is of little surprise. After all, there are two key characters in the movie that hail from that region. The first is Storm, the character you see above, who actually grew up as an orphan on the streets of the capital and learned to become a talented thief. The second Egyptian-tied presence in the movie is the titular villain himself, played by Oscar Isaac. Apocalypse was raised in Ancient Egypt (where he was revealed to be the first mutant), and it's been predicted that he will be woken up there in 1983.

It's worth mentioning that these two characters will very much be tied together in the 2016 blockbuster, as Storm will serve as one of Apocalypse's key henchmen - also known as the Four Horsemen. In addition to Storm, the group will also include Michael Fassbender's Magneto, and two new heroes-turned-evil: Ben Hardy's Angel/Archangel, and Olivia Munn's Psylocke. Though she will be persuaded by Apocalypse to join his cause, we can probably expect that Storm will find her way back to the side of good before the end of the movie, and have her become one of the best students at Xavier's School For Gifted Youngsters.

In addition to all the actors mentioned above, X-Men: Apocalypse will also star James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Evan Peters, Rose Byrne, Tye Sheridan, Sophie Turner, Kodi Smit-McPhee, and Lana Condor. The movie is currently in production up in Toronto - as it has been for the last couple of months - but filming will likely be wrapping up in the coming weeks. After that is the long road of post-production, which will end when the blockbuster is ready to arrive in theaters on May 27, 2016.

Halle Berry's hairstyle as Storm in the original X-Men trilogy and X-Men: Days of Future Past varied from title to title, but it looks as though Alexandra Shipp will be sporting a never-before-seen do for the character in X-Men: Apocalypse. If a new photo from director Bryan Singer is correctly interpreted, then it looks like the weather controlling mutant may be rocking her mohawk look from the comics in the 2016 blockbuster.

The filmmaker has been regularly posting images on his Instagram from the set of his upcoming movie, but this shot actually comes from the Canadian Grand Prix Formula 1 race that was held today in Montreal. Singer attended the event with Alexandra Shipp and Sophie Turner (who is playing Jean Grey in the movie), and - purposefully or not - revealed that Shipp has recently shaved off her hair; presumably for her part in X-Men: Apocalypse. In the comics, Storm is best known for sporting incredibly long, white hair, but what's interesting about this development is that there is a specific look that Shipp's version of Storm may be matching - namely the design introduced by Chris Claremont and Paul Smith back in the early 1980s:

Considering that X-Men: Apocalypse is going to be set in the early 1980s, and the fact that the character has been described to be going down a dark path, it would make a degree of sense that Storm would be sporting this look in the movie - and it's a good call. The film should do something to differentiate this version of the mutant from the versions from the past, and this is a cool way to do just that.

When we will find out exactly what Storm's hairstyle will look like in X-Men: Apocalypse is obviously a mystery for now, but given Bryan Singer's Instagram habit, the wait for confirmation or denial may not be too long from now. After all, it was just a couple weeks ago that he decided to show off the look of the new Nightcrawler, and it's not hard to imagine the director putting the spotlight on his new version of Storm in a similar way.

Looking at this image, do you think that X-Men: Apocalypse is going to give Storm a mohawk? And if so, do you think it's a good aesthetic choice for the character? Hit the comments below to let us know your thoughts, feelings, and opinions on the matter.

About a month ago, X-Men: Apocalypse screenwriter Simon Kinberg went on the record describing the approach that the new film will be taking towards the new, younger versions of previously established mutants. It was noted that Storm - who will be played by Alexandra Shipp in the upcoming film - is going to be portrayed as a "troubled character" who finds herself heading down the road in life. By itself, this isn't much to go on, but now there is new evidence that makes us wonder if the 2016 blockbuster might feature the weather-controlling hero taking a trip to the dark side as one member of the titular villain's personal guard, The Horsemen of Apocalypse.

The aforementioned evidence is a brand new post that director Bryan Singer has put up on his Instagram page, teasing a "big day" on the set of X-Men: Apocalypse:

You'll notice that many of the names listed on the chairs here make sense being together, given that Jennifer Lawrence's Mystique, Nicholas Hoult's Beast, James McAvoy's Charlies Xavier, Rose Byrne's Moira MacTaggert, Michael Fassbender's Magneto, and Lucas Till's Havoc are all linked through their previously established roles in X-Men: First Class and X-Men: Days of Future Past. The outsider in the group - with the exception of the villainous Apocalypse (who will be played by Oscar Isaac) - is Storm, who interestingly isn't joined by any of the other new young mutants in the cast - like Sophie Turner's Jean Grey or Tye Sheridan's Cyclops. Knowing what we know about the film's approach to the character, we're left wondering if this could possibly mean that she is one of the mutants who the eponymous antagonist recruits to be one of his most powerful soldiers.

It's true that there is no real connection to the source material where Storm served as one of Apocalypse's Horsemen (outside of a "What If?" story), but one can understand how the pieces might fit together. In the comics, the god-like mutant has been known to both convince or force individuals to fight by his side as Horsemen, and the combination of Storm's incredible abilities and hinted-at darker path could possibly make her a prime target of which The First One can take advantage. If X-Men: Apocalypse does go in that direction, surely it will be set up that Storm will have a chance at redemption and to become a hero, but giving the character a bit of new backstory as a villain could be very interesting for the franchise going forward.

What do you guys think? Could our theory here by correct, or do you think we're just grasping at straws? Hit the comments with your thoughts!

Bryan Singer's X-Men: Days of Future Past wound up changing the entire X-Men timeline. Because of the way the movie ended, none of the events featured in previous films - with the exception of X-Men: First Class - actually technically happened, and as a result the characters from the original trilogy won't be the exact same people who that we spent years getting to know. This idea is very much reflected in new comments from X-Men: Apocalypse producer/co-writer Simon Kinberg, who has explained how we can expect to see young Storm, Cyclops and Jean Grey portrayed in the upcoming blockbuster.

Empire recently had the chance to interview the filmmaker about the soon-to-star-production X-Men: Apocalypse, and it was during this conversation that Kinberg revealed some very basic details about the aforementioned three characters - who will be played by franchise newcomers Alexandra Shipp, Tye Sheridan, and Sophie Turner, respectively. Let's take a closer look at them individually, shall we?

Storm

Right off the bat we'll start with the most interesting character description that Simon Kinberg offered. In the original X-Men trilogy and X-Men: Days of Future Past, Ororo Munroe a.k.a. Storm was always shown to be a force for good in the battle between Professor X's team and the Brotherhood of Mutants, but evidently X-Men: Apocalypse will be adding a bit of darkness into the character's history. Said the writer/producer of Shipp's take, "Storm is ?a troubled character who is going down the wrong path in life."

Cyclops

While seemingly not as extreme, it also seems that the new version of Scott Summers a.k.a. Cyclops will also have a bit of an edge to him. In his own words, Kinberg describes the Tye Sheridan's take as not yet being "the squeaky-clean leader." This could be a nice contrast to what we've previously seen from the James Marsden version of the character, who was ultimately pretty bland in the original X-Men titles, and not nearly as cool as his comic book counterpart.

Jean Grey

The portrayal of Jean Grey will be an interesting case in X-Men: Apocalypse if not just because we got to see a good chunk of her history in X-Men: The Last Stand - but, again, all of that stuff has now been written off. In his description, Simon Kinberg says this take on the character "is complex, interesting and not fully mature." Going further, he added, "It’s fun to see someone struggling with their powers when you know one day they’ll become the most powerful person in the world."

Storm, Cyclops and Jean Grey won't be the only young mutants featured in X-Men: Apocalypse, as they will be joined by Kodi Smit-McPhee's Nightcrawler, Lana Condor's Jubilee, and Ben Hardy's Angel, but it sounds like this main trio will be getting the bulk of the focus where new young castmembers are concerned. We'll see how it all turns out when X-Men: Apocalypse hits theaters on May 27, 2016.

We've known for months now that the upcoming X-Men: Apocalypse would be finding new, young actors to take over the roles of Cyclops, Storm, and Jean Grey - and while we've heard many names floated around as potential candidates, now we officially know who the three choices are: Tye Sheridan, Alexandra Shipp, and Sophie Turner.

Director Bryan Singer revealed the big casting announcement himself, taking to Twitter to make the very matter-of-fact reveal:

So who are these young actors? Let's take a closer look:

Tye Sheridan is only 18 years old, but has already managed to catch the eye of some very talented filmmakers. He made his big screen debut in Terrence Mallick's The Tree of Life, and earned a great deal of acclaim for his performance in the lead role opposite Matthew McConaughey in Jeff Nichols' indie coming of age drama Mud. He recently starred alongside fellow X-Men co-star Nicholas Hoult in the adaptation of Gillian Flynn's Dark Places, which should be coming out later this year. In The X-Men franchise, he will most notably be replacing James Marsden in the role of Cyclops, though it's also worth mentioning that a younger version of the character was played by Tim Pocock in Gavin Hood's X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Of the three new actors joining the X-Men franchise, Alexandra Shipp is the one you might call the newcomer-ist of the newcomers. While she made her professional acting debut in 2009's Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, most of her work has been on television, doing shows like Days of Our Lives and Ray Donovan. She'll be the new version of Storm, whom Halle Berry famously first brought to live-action in Bryan Singer's 2000 X-Men film.

Those of you who are avid viewers of HBO's Game of Thrones are likely very aware of who Sophie Turner is, instantly acknowledging her as the young, bad-decision-making Sansa Stark. While she is the best known of the new bunch, however, she also has the shortest resume. X-Men: Apocalypse will easily be the biggest film she's been in so far, though she has completed her first action film production having played a supporting role in the upcoming comedy Barely Lethal with Jessica Alba and Samuel L. Jackson.

These three actors are joining an X-Men: Apocalypse cast that already includes the likes of Michael Fassbender as Magneto, James McAvoy as Professor X, Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique, Nicholas Hoult as Beast, and Oscar Isaac is the titular villain. Production is scheduled to begin in the next few months, so stay tuned for more updates!