Angel’s return in X-Men: Apocalypse confirmed

Following last month's teaser, director Bryan Singer has confirmed that Angel will return in X-Men: Apocalypse.

Speaking to Empire, Singer — who last week posted an image of the iconic winged character in some sort of cage surrounded by onlookers — revealed that Angel (aka Warren Worthington III) will be played by former EastEnders star Ben Hardy.

"Ben Hardy is Angel – I shall confirm it for you," Singer said, teasing that the Angel we see might not be the good guy we saw in past films.

"But he's not a very nice Angel!" Singer added. "And that's all I'll say…"

For those unfamiliar, Angel has quite the history with Apocalypse, serving as one of his four horsemen (artificially augmented mutants who perform their master's bidding). In the comics, Warren Worthington III is transformed from the blonde-haired, blue-eyed Angel (his look from the earlier films) into Death, presumably shown in the image above.

Hardy joins an already robust cast that includes Alexandra Shipp (House of Anubis) as Storm, Sophie Turner (Sansa Stark in Game of Thrones) as Jean Grey, and Tye Sheridan (Mud) as play Cyclops. Last month, it was revealed that Austrlian actor Kodi Smit-McPhee will be playing Nightcrawler.

X-Men: Apocalypse is scheduled to hit theaters on May 27, 2016.

[Empire has the full image of Angel/Death]