Ian McKellen on Magneto's Return and Professor X's Final Fate

Ian McKellen, Magneto in the cinematic X-Men Universe, tells off his former X-Men co-stars about the unhappy situation that his character was not involved in Logan, Wolverine's movie swan song. The Graham Norton Show reunited McKellen, Huge Jackman, and Patrick Stewart - and the 78-year-old highly-respected thespian was able to give his friends and ex-colleagues a piece of his mind. Delivered with the usual McKellen wit and panache, everyone - the host, the stars, and the audience - had a ball and half-convinced at the end that Magneto should stage a comeback.

Magneto was last seen in X-Men: Days of Future Past in 2014, and there was not a sign of him in James Mangold's film about Wolverine's ultimate destiny.

McKellen gamely asked Jackman if he could do another Wolverine movie just to include him - but "leave out" Professor X. He said that he cried himself to sleep every night because of his exclusion. Then after saying he had no idea why he wasn't asked to return, he offered one explanation which had the audience in stitches:

"When you get to my age, you want to leave aside those tired old franchises, move onto something fresh."

And his one advice to old friend, Stewart, who like him was honored by the British government for their contribution to the arts, was short and sweet: "It's time you died."

Watching the three can be both fun and bittersweet because they were the three strong pillars that built the first X-Men movie in 2000, and helped propel it into the franchise it is today. Jackman and Stewart maintain that they will not appear in an X-Men movie after Logan. But McKellen has a point: given the right vehicle, their reunion could be fun. And in the movies, nobody ever stays dead permanently.

Watch the three stars have a blast, with the audience in the clip below.

Logan, directed by James Mangold and starring Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart, will be released in theatres on March 3, 2017.