'X-Men: Apocalypse' Adds Newcomer Lana Condor as Jubilee to Cast of Characters
Lana Condor, a relative newcomer with still no known film credits to her name, has been added to the cast of characters in the upcoming X-Men: Apocalypse movie which will show in theaters beginning May 27, 2016. Director Brian Singer made the announcement earlier today via his Instagram page by posting a picture of Condor, captioned "I'd officially like to welcome our newest mutant #JubilationLee, #Jubilee @LanaCondor to #XMEN #Apocalypse."
According to her comic book origin, Jubilation Lee, or Jubilee as like to be called, is a mutant who can generate energy fireworks from her hands. She is introduced as a Chinese American gymnast who lives in Beverly Hills with her wealthy parents until they are murdered by hit-men. She runs away from an orphanage and lives in a Hollywood mall, stealing to survive and running from mall cops before she is rescued and taken in by X-Men members.
In the Marvel films, Jubilee has been portrayed by Katrina Florence in 2000's X-Men, and Kea Wong played her in 2003's X-Men 2 and 2006's X-Men: The Last Stand.
Condor joins fellow newcomers Kodi Smit-McPhee who plays Nightcrawler, Sophie Turner as the young Jean Grey, Alexandra Shipp as the young Storm and Tye Sheridan as the young Cyclops. Leading the cast, Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Hugh Jackman, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult and Rose Byrne are reprising the roles they previously played in the film franchise. Channing Tatum is expected to make a cameo appearance as Gambit preparatory to his standalone Marvel movie which is scheduled to be released on October 7, 2016. The titular villain, En Sabah Nur better known as Apocalypse, will be portrayed by Oscar Isaac.
Singer is directing X-Men: Apocalypse from a script written by Simon Kinberg, Dan Harris and Michael Dougherty. According to studio sources, the film will focus on the origin of the mutants and that the story will take place in 1983. It is meant to complete a trilogy that began with X-Men: First Class.