Although a version of her character appeared in 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand, Psylocke is making her official cinematic debut in X-Men: Apocalypse, played by Olivia Munn. As one of the more athletic characters in the X-Men universe, moviegoers are going to see Psylocke fighting and jumping around, so you’d think the mutant’s more intense action scenes will be performed by a stunt double. However, in this case, Munn decided to handle the stunts herself.
In an interview with ET Online, Munn revealed that she performed all of Psylocke’s action scenes in X-Men: Apocalypse, from "beginning to end," without a stunt double to give those scenes more authenticity. The actress trained heavily during X-Men: Apocalypse’s production with Tae Kwan Do and wirework. We even saw a few behind-the-scenes videos she posted of her practicing swordplay. All these exercises were to do justice to how strong the character is in the comics, according to Munn. As she put it:
Psylocke is such a powerful, lethal character. It was important to me that I was able to do all of the stunts because the more believable it is, the better it is for the audience -- and the only way to make it believable is for me to actually do it.
After showing up to set, Olivia Munn tells ET that she stated that she could easily handle being swung around on the wire with a sword in her hand. One moment that was specifically noted in the interview was from the recent Super Bowl TV spot, where Psylocke is flipping through the air and slicing an incoming car in half. While there isn’t any context yet for why Psylocke is jumping in that scene, but it does look like it’s happening towards X-Men: Apocalypse’s climax, i.e. the battle between the X-Men and Apocalypse and his Four Horsemen.
When we meet Psylocke in X-Men: Apocalypse, she’ll be an assassin taking out her targets using her telekinetic and telepathic abilities, specifically by conjuring energy blades with her mind. Like Magneto, Storm and Angel, Psylocke will be approached by Apocalypse to become one of his Four Horsemen and help him rebuild the world in his image. Their goals will face resistance when Charles Xavier and his X-Men try to defeat them. Since Psylocke becomes a hero in the comics, it remains to be seen if Munn’s Psylocke will follow suit, or if she’ll stay a bad guy for the entirety of the movie.
We’ll see Psylocke in action when X-Men: Apocalypse hits theaters on May 27.
