When the casting of Ben Hardy was announced for X-Men: Apocalypse, it’s safe to say that it raised a few eyebrows. At that point, Hardy could literally be playing anyone, but there is one specific character that was being looked at, Angel. The fact that a number of young actors/actresses have been cast as younger versions of characters we’ve already seen, and the history Angel has with Apocalypse, it made a lot of sense.

As production has drawn closer for the latest X-Men movie, the speculation has been crazy for the last number of weeks that he would be playing Angel. But now, we have official word that Ben Hardy is in fact Angel for Apocalypse, and quite possibly beyond. While talking with Empire, director Bryan Singer was asked if Hardy was Angel and here’s what Singer had to say:

“Ben Hardy is Angel – I shall confirm it for you!” said Singer. “But he’s not a very nice Angel! And that’s all I’ll say…”

I love the straight forward answer, just dropping the news like that. It’s been expected, but it’s still kind of cool to have real confirmation. And if that ins’t enough, some exclusive concept art of the character was released as well. Take a look!

If you’re wondering why his wings don’t look much like feathers, that’s because we could be meeting Archangel soon! If you aren’t familiar with the story or read any of the X-Men comics before, here’s an explanation from Empire:

“Apocalypse (played by Oscar Isaac) is a super-powerful mutant supported by the Horsemen, four artificially augmented mutants whose duty it is to do their master’s bidding. Perhaps the most famous Horseman of them all is Warren Worthington III, who was transformed from the blond, blue-eyed Angel into Death, aka the blue-skinned Archangel, complete with knives for wings.”

If you remember Angel from X-Men: The Last Stand, it seems we’ll be getting a very, very different incarnation of the character this time around, and for the better. An original member of the X-Men (from the comics) on the dark side fighting his mutant family, sounds like all kinds of awesome! Stay tune for more on Archangel and X-Men: Apocalypse as production starts up pretty soon.

X-Men: Apocalypse is slated for May 27th, 2016. Directed by Bryan Singer starring Jennifer Lawrence, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Nicholas Hoult, Evan Peters, Oscar Isaac, Channing Tatum, Rose Byrne, Tye Sheridan, Sophie Turner, Kodi Smit-McPhee, and Ben Hardy.