He’s only 18 years old but he’s already established himself as one of the finest young actors working in Hollywood today having impressed in The Road, Let Me In, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and more recently Slow West, ironically alongside his fellow mutant Michael Fassbender.

In February director Bryan Singer revealed via his Instagram account that Smit-McPhee was cast in X-Men: Apocalypse as a young Kurt Wagner, aka Nightcrawler, who was previously played by Scottish actor Alan Cumming in X-Men 2. In a recent interview with SuperHeroHype, Kodi Smit-McPhee revealed his thoughts on the audition process and the pressure to please comic-book purists.

When asked about the daunting task of taking over from Alan Cumming and playing a younger version, Smit-McPhee replied, “Because it is the Marvel Universe and X-Men and there are a lot of people expecting a lot of things, I did a huge amount of research on anyone who has portrayed it and even in the comics and the cartoons and live action. I just followed Nightcrawler’s story. I feel very honored and grateful to be expressing that now. I can’t wait. I don’t try to avoid [comparisons]… I just let things come naturally.”

Speaking about his first meeting with Bryan Singer the young Australian admitted, “…we hit it off and spoke a lot about our own interests in quantum physics and the spiritual world, so we hit it off, and then I just did an audition and they were saying, ‘Bryan wanted you the whole time so let’s get the auditions done with.’”

It was rumoured that Nightcrawler might’ve originally returned for X-Men: Days of Future Past but for various reasons that didn’t work out and Smit-McPhee shared his own thoughts on the matter, “I think Bryan said that he thought that it just wasn’t the right time because there were already so many mutants in it and after reading the script now, I can see what they’re doing. They have the ability to bring these younger characters in now, so I think a lot of the people who know the traditional origins of where this came from will be very happy.”

X-Men: Apocalypse is set for release on May 19th, 2016 in the UK and May 27th, 2016 in the States, with Bryan Singer directing a cast that includes X-Men veterans James McAvoy (Professor X), Michael Fassbender (Magneto), Jennifer Lawrence (Mystique), Nicholas Hoult (Beast), Evan Peters (Quicksilver), Rose Byrne (Moira MacTaggert) and Lucas Till (Havok) along with newcomers Oscar Isaac (Star Wars: The Force Awakens) as Apocalypse, Sophie Turner (Game of Thrones) as Jean Grey, Tye Sheridan (Mud) as Cyclops, Alexandra Shipp (House of Anubis) as Storm, Kodi Smit-McPhee (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes) as Nightcrawler, Ben Hardy (EastEnders) as Angel, Olivia Munn (Magic Mike) as Psylocke and newcomer Lana Condor as Jubilee.

Gavin Logan – Follow me on Twitter