Back in February, we reported that British actor Ben Hardy (EastEnders) had been cast in an important but unspecified role in X-Men: Apocalypse, which is getting ready to start production this month in Montreal. Then last week, a new report revealed that the actor is actually playing Angel, a character who was featured in concept art posted by director Bryan Singer. Today, the director confirms that Ben Hardy is in fact playing Angel, while briefly teasing that, despite his name, Angel isn't very angelic.

"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..."

In the comic books, Angel a.k.a. Warren Worthington III is one of Apocalypse's four Horsemen, after being transformed from Angel into Death, also known as Archangel, who is equipped with wings that are made out of knives. While there is very little we know about the X-Men: Apocalypse story, Bryan Singer provided Empire with two pieces of concept art that show the Archangel armor, complete with his deadly knife-wings. Hopefully we'll find out more about this character as we get closer to production starting.

What's interesting is that Angel was previously portrayed by Ben Foster in 2006's X-Men: The Last Stand, although several events from that movie, including the death of Famke Janssen's Jean Grey, were essentially wiped out after X-Men: Days of Future Past created a new "present day" timeline, where Jean Grey was seen alive and well with Cyclops (James Marsden). All we know about X-Men: Apocalypse thus far is that it is set in the 1980s and will close out the trilogy that includes X-Men: First Class and X-Men: Days of Future Past. While we wait for more details about X-Men: Apocalypse, check out the Angel concept art below.

X-Men Apocalypse Angel Concept Art 1
X-Men Apocalypse Angel Concept Art 2