Jessica Chastain confirms X-Men casting with Instagram post

Jessica Chastain appears to have confirmed that she will appear in the next X-Men movie Dark Phoenix.

The Zero Dark Thirty actress took to Instagram on Tuesday (01Aug17) to tease franchise star James McAvoy about her rumored role in the movie, which was first reported in June.

According to Deadline.com, Chastain is set to join X-Men favorites McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, and Nicholas Hoult.

Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan, and Kodi Smit-McPhee are also all returning.

And on Tuesday the actress, who has reportedly been tapped to tackle the character Shi'ar Empress Lilandra, addressed the rumors with a post on her Instagram account.

"Hey @jamesmcavoyrealdeal you ready for me up in Montreal? Im gonna make you cry so hard #xmen @simondavidkinberg," Chastain captioned a picture of her pinching McAvoy's cheek. She also tagged the film's writer/director Simon Kinberg in her revealing post.

Her confirmation comes weeks after McAvoy first teased her involvement to the follow-up to 2016's X-Men: Apocalypse.

"So I hear we're doing another X-men...wake me up when it's time to roll would you Chastain? ps.im not confirming J Chastain.just teasing," he posted in June.

The actress is rumored to be playing the villain in X-Men: Dark Phoenix. Jean Grey aka Phoenix's (Sophie Turner) powers are amplified when she comes in contact with a cosmic energy called the Phoenix Force and Jessica's evil empress will lead a quest to hunt down and execute Grey's alter-ego Dark Phoenix.

Former Jean Grey actress Famke Janssen welcomed the decision to focus on Dark Phoenix after 2006's X-Men: The Last Stand was slammed for its handling of Grey's alter ego. However, she has criticized the decision to replace the older female actors in the franchise, which has yet to let the two generations of women play the same character in a film.

"We've only seen that with Magneto and Professor X," she told Entertainment Tonight. "I think it's time to do that with one of the females. Why not Jean Grey?"