The quickest, most simple way to differentiate James McAvoy’s version of Charles Xavier from Patrick Stewart’s in Fox’s X-Men films has always been the lush mop of hair atop the former’s head, while the latter possessed the more iconic chrome dome that comic book fans know and love. As audiences have watched McAvoy’s Professor X grow and mature since 2011’s X-Men: First Class, they have all wondered when and how Xavier would lose his brown locks for the streamlined look. Now the actor says that X-Men: Apocalypse will provide those answers.
Appearing on The Graham Norton Show with Daniel Radcliffe to promote the new film Victor Frankenstein, McAvoy discussed Xavier’s hair loss when the topic shifted to the upcoming Apocalypse:
He ends up going through something so horrible and physically painful that he literally half pulls his hair out/half it falls out. Maybe, or maybe not…I just shit myself because I know Fox Studios who own me might be angry with me for sharing that.
So it looks like Professor’s hair loss won’t just be some sort of pattern baldness; he will suffer a trauma that causes his hair to fall out and be yanked out due to the stress. The films teased Xavier’s hair loss in First Class with several references to shaving his head, and the notion that he would lose his hair as he ages, but McAvoy’s words indicate a less natural form of hair loss in the coming film. Charles Xavier has already been through quite a bit, having been paralyzed at the end of First Class when Magneto (Michael Fassbender) severed his spine with a bullet, and then losing many of his students to the Vietnam war – as well as choosing to forgo his powers – prior to the events of Days of Future Past.
Whatever the villainous Apocalypse brings to the table when he shows up to wreak havoc, it is safe to assume that it will be some of the most devastating events these characters have ever come across. This explanation differs somewhat from more traditional versions of Xavier’s backstory in the comic book universe, in which his hair loss came as a result of the advancement of his mutation.
Check out the video below to see the rest of McAvoy’s appearance on The Graham Norton Show:
We will know for sure what happens to devastate Xavier’s follicles on May 27, 2016 when X-Men: Apocalypse hits theaters.
