Ever since EastEnders alum Ben Hardy joined the expansive cast of Bryan Singer’s X-Men: Apocalypse, rumors began to swirl that he was playing fan-favorite mutant Angel, one of the founding members of the titular team and an important figure in the Age of Apocalypse comic book storyline. Now, thanks to Singer himself, that rumor has been confirmed (via Empire):
“Ben Hardy is Angel – I shall confirm it for you! But he’s not a very nice Angel! And that’s all I’ll say…”
That sounds like Hardy won’t just be donning Angel’s white wings in the film (as teased by some concept art released last week), but will in fact show up as one of Apocalypse’s Four Horsemen: Archangel. The Horsemen are four artificially augmented mutants, given the names Death, Famine, Pestilence and War, who are tasked with doing their master’s bidding. Angel takes on the Death moniker and is given deadly metal wings in return for his service to Apocalypse.
Singer may not have mentioned Archangel by name, but he did give Empire two pieces of concept art that all but confirm Angel’s villainous transformation in the film. You can check them out below:
So, is this the fate that Bryan Singer has in store for Ben Hardy? We’ll find out for sure when X-Men: Apocalypse hits theaters on May 27th, 2016.