Former "Frasier" star Kelsey Grammer will play the blue and furry Beast in the upcoming "X-Men 3" film, according to superherohype.com.

If that seems like surprising casting, producer Avi Arad doesn't think so. "Kelsey was born to play the role," he said. As he sees it, the actor's articulate, modulated speech is a match for Hank McCoy, who is a Ph.D. and thus the smartest of the mutant team.

"This is a big role in the new movie, and when we met with him, you can see that Kelsey has that you'd-better-have-a-dictionary-handy intelligence," Arad said.

In other "X-sequel" news, it's finally official that Vinnie Jones, a former soccer player, will portray Professor X's half-brother, the Juggernaut, a rumor that has circulated on the Internet for months. An old friend of the film's director Matthew Vaughn, Jones will breathe life into the 6-foot-10, 900-pound linchpin of Magneto's own mutant group.

Another character expected to appear in the movie is Kitty Pryde, the young mutant who can phase through walls. Negotiations are underway with Maggie Grace of ABC's successful "Lost" series to fill that role. Fox is also actively searching for an actor to play Warren Worthington III, better known as the Angel, a handsome winged mutant.

"X-Men 3" will be released to theaters on Memorial Day in 2006. The current script has been written by Zak Penn and Simon Kinberg.