2014 is a big year for Marvel movies. In addition to Marvel Studios' Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy, and Sony's The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Fox is adding a new entry to Marvel's mutant film series with X-Men: Days of Future Past.

Den of Geek recently got the chance to interview British actor Nicholas Hoult, who will be reprising his role as scientist Hank McCoy, aka Beast, in the upcoming sequel to X-men: First Class. The 24-year old star of Jack the Giant Slayer expressed his excitement at playing one of his favorite childhood superheroes.

"I grew up watching the X-Men cartoon. That was my introduction to it. And Beast was always my favourite character to watch, so yeah, it was brilliant to get the chance to play him. I was lucky enough the first time, but to come back into it with Bryan directing as well -- I'm getting on really well with him, and he just loves the X-Men universe, really cares about it, and has some great ideas."

Bryan Singer is returning to direct X-Men for the fist time since 2003's X2. The plot will see Hugh Jackman's Wolverine team up with Hoult's Beast and James McAvoy's Professor X as he ventures into the past to prevent some nasty future events from occurring.

Hoult describes the relationship between Wolverine and his character:

"It starts off on slightly the wrong foot, but Logan's coming back from the future, and he has to explain to us in the past what's going on. And that's quite a lot to take on board for us, and he can be a quite intense character, Logan, he's a lot to take in."

He also hinted at reasons why fans will see McCoy -- previously thought to be permanently stuck in his new form as a furry, blue mutant -- return to a more 'human' appearance.

"Hank is very intelligent," Hoult says. "In the last film, there was a serum he developed that helped control his mutation and stuff, and there's a similar thing in this. It's still the Jekyll and Hyde aspect to it, but he does get to switch between the two."

X-men: Days of Future Past is scheduled to hit theaters on May 23, 2014.