Rose Byrne to play Moira MacTaggert in X-Men: First Class

UPDATE – Deadline is now reporting that Oliver Platt has also signed on to star as the mysterious figure “The Man in Black”…

With filming set to begin later this month, the final bits of casting on X-MEN: FIRST CLASS are taking shape. Rose Byrne has signed on to star as Moira MacTaggert, the Scottish geneticist who’s also a love interest for Charles Xavier (James McAvoy), while Jason Flemyng will play Azazel, the mutant who would eventually be the father to Nightcrawler.

MacTaggert, if you’ll remember, was actually seen in X-MEN 3 (a movie so terrible, I’ve completely blanked on the subtitle that followed) in a post-credits sequence and was played by Olivia Williams. (Let’s forget for a second that McAvoy is about 40 years younger than Patrick Stewart but Byrne is only about 10 years younger than Williams. I think it’s safe to say we’re now working in a universe where Ratner doesn’t exist.)

With Mystique already cast in the film, it certainly seems that we’ll see the genesis of Nightcrawler with both his mother and father cast in this film. I wouldn’t expect him to be a huge part of this film but probably someone at an early point of Mystique’s storyline.

Byrne is currently filming the Kristen Wiig comedy BRIDESMAIDS and can be seen next in the James Wan horror film INSIDIOUS.