Oh – my – God. As if Empire Towers hadn’t seen enough arm-flapping enthusiasm for one morning with the arrival of the Pirates trailer, we talked to Patrick Stewart to confirm a few details about the long-delayed but much-anticipated X-Men 3.

At last night’s BIFAs, Patrick Stewart, aka masterful bald cogitator Professor Charles Xavier, has said his character will be upping the hardcore ante in the film. Firstly though, he assured Empire that the film was going to happen at all, despite the late start: “Well we lost two directors! But everything was fine when I left the set. I’ve finished my filming now and it’s all looking great.” Phew, that’s alright then.

We asked him about a potential Dark Phoenix plot to the film, to which he looked very mysterious but wouldn’t give anything away except for a rather intriguing smile. (A Dark Phoenix shaped smile? Oh go on…) He did however drop a few tantalising tidbits about Professor X's fate in the second sequel: “You’d need about an hour to hear all about it. There are going to be some changes. Professor X is now very, very startling, very surprising. It’s all very exciting.”