‘Have they f***!’: James McAvoy says he has not been asked to be in Narnia reboot

‘X-Men’ star is unlikely to make an appearance in any further imaginations of CS Lewis’s stories

James McAvoy has firmly denied his involvement in a reboot of the Narnia films.

The Atonement and Split actor played Mr Tumnus in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe in 2005.

As the friendly faun – a man-goat hybrid – McAvoy starred with Tilda Swinton and a child cast of William Moseley, Anna Popplewell, Skandar Keynes, and Georgie Henley as the Pevensie siblings: Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy.

The Narnia franchise continued with Prince Caspian in 2008 and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader in 2010. To date, the films have grossed a total of $1.5bn (£1.24bn) worldwide.

In a recent interview with GQ, McAvoy responded to a question about the prospect of appearing in a reboot of the Narnia films in the future.

When asked whether the creators had approached him with an offer to take part, McAvoy exclaimed: “Have they f***!”

The actor also was questioned about a possible appearance in the Marvel universe, after his four-movie stint as the younger Professor X in the X-Men films released between 2011 and 2019.

However, he remained tightlipped on whether he’d been in talks with Marvel president Kevin Feige.

“I’ve definitely not got the call,” he told the interviewer, before adding: “And if I did I would definitely not be telling you.”

James McAvoy (Getty Images for ReedPop)

Elsewhere in the interview, the 43-year-old spoke fondly of his time as part of the X-Men story but criticised the creative decision to deprioritise the complex friendship between two of the main characters.

“My biggest criticism of what we did throughout the four movies was that after the first movie, we didn’t take advantage of the relationship between [Xavier and Michael Fassbender’s Magneto], which really formed the backbone of the first film,” the actor admitted.

He continued: “So it was like, why did we just eject that massive weapon?”

McAvoy will star in season three of His Dark Materials in December.