Since he’s already a fan of the X-Men franchise, Edi Gathegi admitted that he's thrilled to be starring as the mutant Darwin in “X-Men: First Class.” Audiences won't be able to see him in action until next week, but he’s been happy to tell us more about his character to get everyone ready for the premiere.
“My character is in a constant state of evolution,” Gathegi told IGN. “It's called reactive adaptation - so whatever environment he's in, in order to survive he will mutate, basically.”
How does it work? Gathegi explained: “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," he added.
Gathegi enjoys the logic to his character, but he also sympathizes with how the film's mutants tend to hate themselves and their powers at first.
“I think my character had it really, really tough, because he was constantly in situations where his body would start to mutate and he didn't understand why it was happening,” he explained. “He was suicidal because of it and he couldn't even kill himself, because his body would protect him. He jumped off a building and his bones turned to rubber.”
But things should get better for Darwin once he meets Charles Xavier and histeam of teenage mutants, right?
"[Darwin] was stuck in this life of feeling different - sort of indestructible,” Gathegi said. “And I think in this movie, he's finally found a calling. He's finally found people like him. And he finally gets to be the person he was meant to be. He comes out of his shell. He's a good guy.”
Are you looking forward to seeing Darwin in “X-Men: First Class”? Let us know in the comments section or on Twitter!