After the Apocalypse, Jennifer Lawrence is Done with X-Men

She is a shapeshifter. So literally anyone could play Mystique, right?

Actress Jennifer Lawrence announced on MTV today that the upcoming 8th X-Men feature film – her third – will also be her last. She will not play the chimerical character in any planned 9th X-Men feature film, and any plans for a Mystique solo film are now at an end, at least with Lawrence.

Lawrence lent a passionate dark energy to the character in the 5th and 7th X-Men films. Her immediate predecessor, Rebecca Romijn (who played Mystique in the first, second, and third X-Men films), was a more steely, quiet, inscrutable presence. Seeing as the character doesn’t appear to age, however, and that she can take on the form of anyone, recasting the role is one of the simplest dramatic re-jiggerings that a screenwriter can hope to encounter.

Bryan Singer, the director of X-Men: Apocalypse, has also had to face the fact that Nicholas Hoult is also dropping out of the series following his film. Given the X-Men series’ tendency to skip around in time, however, I’m sure any and all cast changes – or mysterious character disappearances – can be met with a small amount of can-do storytelling grace.

X-Men: Apocalypse will be released in theaters May 27th, 2016.