Veteran actor Sir Ian McKellen IS set to reprise his role as Magneto in X-Men: Apocalypse - according to his good friend and co-star Sir Patrick Stewart.

The man who plays Professor Charles Xavier had previously revealed that neither he nor McKellen would be returning to the superhero franchise, but now appears to have changed his tune.

He told Oregon Live that he is "very unlikely" to be appearing, adding: "But Magneto, Ian McKellen, is certainly going to be in it. And what I'm very excited about is that we have been talking about a Wolverine movie, which would team Hugh Jackman and myself together.

"Wolverine and Professor Xavier. That would be a very different sort of 'X-Men' from the four movies that I've already done."

Sounds like a winning team to us!

X-Men: Apocalypse is going into production in Canada imminently and will star Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Nicholas Hoult, Jennifer Lawrence, Evan Peters and Oscar Isaac.

Sophie Turner, Alexandra Shipp and Tye Sheridan have recently been cast as younger versions of Jean Grey, Storm and Cyclops.

The movie is set for release next May.