According to Baz Bamigboye who writes in the British newspaper, The Daily Mail, Walker (28) who was reported last month to be locked in to play a young Hank McCoy was dropped this week because of his age.
Bamigboye writes,
"'Fox absolutely loved him, booked him and the next minute they're saying they don't want him. It was bizarre because they'd signed a deal on him,' a source intimately involved in The Situation told me from Los Angeles yesterday."
Apparently, Fox were worried that the actor was just too old to play the teenage Beast when the actors they've hired for Professor X and Magento (James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender) are 31 and 33 respectively. However, the article does finish on rather an odd note as it seems there's still a chance we'll see him in the movie in the very role he's just lost:
"The Fox studio screened-tested three other potential Beast actors at Pinewood yesterday, but I'm told they didn't seem right for the role. Strangest thing of all is that late last night, I started hearing that Fox might end up re-offering Walker his Beast role back!"