JAMES MARSDEN 'IT'S BEEN A NICE HOMECOMING'

THE STAR GETS REFLECTIVE ABOUT HIS CAREER AS HE SUITS UP TO REPRISE X-MEN CHARACTER CYCLOPS IN AVENGERS: DOOMSDAY

- Carolyn Hiblen

In March, Marvel Studios blew the minds of fans with the announcement that several X-Men characters would be making their long-awaited crossover from their own film franchise into the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Avengers: Doomsday. The highly anticipated superhero film will feature one of cinema's most star-studded casts ever, with the superpowered mutants from X-Men converging with the MCU timeline to take on Robert Downey Jr's Doctor Doom.

For James Marsden, that means playing Scott Summers, aka Cyclops - a role he originated in 2000's X-Men - for the first time since a small cameo in 2014's X-Men: Days of Future Past. Currently in production, he told Vanity Fair on August 7 it's been "a blast" revisiting his "very beloved character".

"I'm getting a little long in the tooth to put on the superhero costume," the 51-year-old told the publication. "I was excited because you're a part of something gigantic, and I've spent 20 years listening to people say, 'When are you coming back? When are you coming back?

Are you coming back?' "[Cyclops is] dead. Well, maybe not. I'm going to have a tough time struggling to get into costume if they waited a couple more years. So it's been a blast.