Nicholas Caradoc Hoult (born 7 December 1989 in Wokingham, England) is an English actor.
As a child actor, his breakthrough role was Marcus Brewer in 2002's About a Boy with Hugh Grant. He's since moved onto more adult roles, starring as Tony Stonem on Skins, Beast in 20th Century Fox's X-Men Film Series, and Nux in Mad Max: Fury Road.
Selected filmography:
- About a Boy (2002) as Marcus Brewer
- The Weather Man (2005) as Mike Spritzel
- Skins (2007 — 2008) as Tony Stonem
- A Single Man (2009) as Kenny Potter
- Clash of the Titans (2010) as Eusebios
- Fable III (2010) as Elliot (voice only)
- X-Men Film Series (2011 — 2019) as Dr. Hank McCoy / Beast:
- X-Men: First Class (2011)
- X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
- X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)
- Deadpool 2 (2018) (Cameo)
- Dark Phoenix (2019)
- Warm Bodies (2013) as R
- Jack the Giant Slayer (2013) as Jack
- Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) as Nux
- The Favourite (2018) as Robert Harley
- Watership Down (2018) as Fiver (voice only)
- Tolkien (2019) as J. R. R. Tolkien
- The Current War (2019) as Nikola Tesla
- The Great (2020-) as Peter III
- Crossing Swords (2020) as Patrick (voice only)
- Those Who Wish Me Dead (2021) as Patrick Blackwell
- The Menu (2022) as Tyler Ledford
- Renfield (2023) as Renfield
- The Garfield Movie (2024) as Jon Arbuckle
- Nosferatu (2024) as Thomas Hutter
- Superman (2025) as Lex Luthor
Associated Tropes
- Fake American: As Hank McCoy in the X-Men Film Series.
- Promoted Fanboy:
- He was a fan of the X-Men films growing up, and was of course eventually cast as Beast in First Class; he's said that he was rather starstruck acting alongside Hugh Jackman, playing Wolverine, in Days of Future Past.
- When he showed up on Michael Rosenbaum's Inside of You podcast, he made sure to make it immediately clear that he was a big fan of Smallville growing up and regards Rosenbaum's take on Lex Luthor, who Hoult is playing in James Gunn's Superman, as his favorite and the definitive in his eyes.
- Romance on the Set: After meeting Jennifer Lawrence on the set of X-Men: First Class, they dated on and off for around four years, before breaking up permanently after the filming of X-Men: Days of Future Past was completed.
- What Could Have Been: He's yet to land a leading role in a franchise but he's come up close a couple of times:
- He was in the top three contenders to play Newt Scamander in the Fantastic Beasts series but ended up losing out to to Eddie Redmayne.
- He was the runner-up for the role of Bruce Wayne in The Batman before the casting of Robert Pattinson. Reportedly the people at Warner Bros. and director Matt Reeves liked him, but he didn't get the part because they were worried about his appearances in the X-Men films diluting the Batman brand, since it's one of their most lucrative intellectual properties.
- He was also a runner-up for the role of Clark Kent in Superman before the casting of David Corenswet. However, the producers still held out a hand for him, as he was cast as Lex Luthor a couple of months later.
- Multiple filming delays due to the COVID-19 Pandemic caused him to quit Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning. Esai Morales took over him as the villainous Gabriel.
- He was also in the running for Rooster for Top Gun: Maverick, losing out not only to Miles Teller but to Glen Powell, who in a twist was a Cast the Runner-Up as he also auditioned for the role and instead was cast as Hangman.
