So far Edi Gathegi’s X-Men: First Class character hasn’t been getting a lot of pub both in the press and the marketing materials (trailers, posters notably) that the studio has, thus far, distributed for the film; I suppose it’s likely because he’s a peripheral character in the movie.
Gathegi’s is a name we’ve mentioned a few times on this site; specifically, he played an evil vampire in the Twilight movies; most recently, he co-stars in the Atlas Shrugged movie; and now, he’s part of the ensemble cast of X-Men: First Class playing a character called Darwin, the so-called “Blacktino” mutant with the adaptive powers.
I’m working on getting on the press junkett cue so that we can have our own chat with Gathegi (and Zoe Kravitz, who also stars in the movie), but in the meantime, this recent interview Gathegi held with IGN will have to suffice. In it, he talks further about the character he plays, the exposure the role might get him, a sequel, jumping from the Twilight movies to this, and more.
A snip in which he breaks down the character he plays, for those unaware: “My character’s name is Armando Muñoz, otherwise known as Darwin, and he gets his nickname from Charles Darwin, the father of the theory of evolution. My character is in a constant state of evolution. It’s called reactive adaptation – so whatever environment he’s in, in order to survive he will mutate, basically. If he gets thrown in water, all of a sudden he might have gills. The lights go out, he’ll have 20-20 vision in the pitch black. He’s the coolest one! What I like about my character’s powers is that a lot of the X-Men have very cool powers, but with this one you actually see it happening and you see why it’s happening. In the right circumstances you see the thought behind the character and the need to create that evolution. There’s a logic to it. And the possibilities are endless with good writing.“
You can read the full interview HERE (thanks to AfroStyling for the heads-up).
Get to know this young cat because we might be seeing more of him in coming years.
