Edi Gathergi may not be a household name, but he'll be recognisable to Twilight fans as Laurent, the vampire who travelled with the evil Victoria and James, but who later attempted to be less unpleasant. Now the Kenyan born actor is joining X-Men: First Class, with Deadline reporting that he'll play the role of Darwin.
It's the first we've heard of this mutant in the movie, and to be honest he may be a slightly awkward one to deal with in the film. Darwin has the power of 'reactive evolution', which mean that his body automatically adapts to any situation or environment he is placed in. So if he was in water, he'd grow gills, or if he fell into a fire, he'd become flameproof. Although an interesting power to play with in a movie, it's also sort of thing that could start looking exceedingly convenient, if every time the proto-X-Men get in a sticky situation, Darwin can just grow a new power to sort it out.
Matthew Vaughn will direct X-Men: First Class, which looks at the early days of the friendship between Charles Xavier and Magneto, as well as the setting up of the school for mutants, with James McAvoy as Xavier, Michael Fassbender as Magneto, Alice Eve as Emma Frost, Nicholas Hoult as Beast, Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique, Caleb Landry Jones as Banshee, Lucas Till as Havoc and Kevin Bacon as the villain. The movie goes into production soon, for a June, 2011 release.