Apparently responding to the recent flurry of rumors about the upcoming "X-Men 3" film, Marvel movie chief Avi Arad spoke with Empire Online about the next installment in the series of movies based on the popular comic books.

Arad denied speculation that the upcoming X-Men sequel will feature a woman as the mutant Angel.

"It won't be a female Angel," Arad told the site. "I don't know where that came from. Maybe it's because he looks angelic."

Arad remained tight-lipped about which of the scores of X-mutants from the comics will appear in the next film, which will be helmed by British director Matthew Vaughn ("Layer Cake"). While rumors have centered on Gambit and the blue-skinned Beast, Arad said only that there would be "interesting characters that will be introduced. It just has to move forward."

"Obviously, we have Wolverine and Magneto, Professor X, Storm, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Rogue, all these characters. But then you need to freshen up the story and make it new," he said.

Arad also hedged on expectations that the third X-Men film will deal with the comics' Dark Phoenix storyline, which was hinted at in the end of the previous film, "X2."

"The movie should never be this one story," Arad said. "The main characters are more important than Jean Grey (Famke Janssen). This is a bigger story. Everybody's expecting Dark Phoenix, but Dark Phoenix would never be the main show," he said. "She'll be one of the characters, but that's it. There are a lot of stories to tell."

"X-Men 3" is scheduled to be released May 26, 2006.