After two iterations in the prequel/sequel version of the X-franchise, Nicholas Hoult returns to the character of Hack McCoy aka BEAST, who is now an older, more experienced version of the character that acts as a mentor to the newer students in the fully established mutant school. He discusses his new role at the school, his inventions, and how much time he spends at Beast vs. Hank McCoy. So, where do we find ol’ Hank at the beginning of APOCALYPSE?
“It’s a pretty happy place. Ten years on, the school’s going well, it’s got all these new students, Charles and I are kind of running it I guess. It’s a lot happier than the last movie where I was kind of his enabler and having dark days in the X-Mansion. Hank, since the last movie, still believes that the world kind of needs the X-Men, and that even though there’s peace between humans and mutants at this point, he senses trouble and has kind of been building this jet war plan and kind of preparing for the worst. But other than that, other than his pessimism and preparing for the worst, he’s hoping for the best and having fun teaching I think.”
In the previous films Beast has always been working on something and in this film he’ll be bringing more inventions to the table, this time on a more individual level to his fellow X-Men.
“He’s got to build inventions for some of the new characters that are having trouble with their powers, so he’s building some stuff for that. He’s actually gotten a lot better with his inventions in this movie, they seem to work. I don’t know if you remember in First Class but he’d build stuff and it never worked most of the time. He builds a jet, which is really cool.”
Hoult says the Beast version of his character remains relatively the same as past incarnations in terms of the look and says he’ll spend about half the film as Beast and the other half in his human form.
“I haven’t really been tallying it up and obviously when they cut it all together who knows, but yeah it’s been around 50/50 I think. The last film it was more switching back and forth, this film just because of the pacing of the film and how it comes together it’s more Hank at the front and Beast towards the end of the film.”
Hoult says he’ll have a bond with Cyclops as well, having come up through the ranks with his brother, Havoc, acting in a mentor-like role to him and the other new X-Men.
“He kind of takes him under his wing a little bit. Hank does take on a more paternal role with all the youngsters—not as much as Professor X, because Professor X has got more of a connection with everyone because of his powers—but Hank is certainly kind of a figure in all of that as well. I’m taking care of all these youngsters, cause he’s been through it and fought in battles and kind of lived it.”