Sir Ian McKellen and Sir Patrick Stewart in Broadway double-header

X-Men stars Sir Ian McKellen and Sir Patrick Stewart are to reprise their roles in Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot on the Broadway stage.

The pair will also perform together in Harold Pinter's No Man's Land on the New York stage later this year.

The plays, to run in repertory, will be directed by Sean Mathias, who worked with the actors on Waiting for Godot during its 2009 West End run.

The two productions are scheduled to open in the autumn.

Sir Ian, 73, will play Estragon in Waiting for Godot and Spooner in No Man's Land, while Sir Patrick, 72, takes on the roles of Vladimir and Hirst.

The British pair have a long history of working together, dating back to 1977 when they appeared in Tom Stoppard's Every Good Boy Deserves Favour.

They went on to co-star in the X-Men film franchise as Professor Xavier and Magneto, roles they will resume next year in X-Men: Days of Future Past.

Sir Patrick, best known for playing Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation, first appeared on Broadway in A Midsummer Night's Dream in 1971 and has recently been seen in Macbeth.

Mathias said the trio would use the same approach with No Man's Land as they did with Waiting for Godot.