X-Men: First Class…Its a Movie
With all of the hype surrounding Thor, Captain America and the Avengers its easy to forget that a new X-men movie is coming next year. The Matthew Vaughn (Kick-ass, Stardust) directed flick will be released June 3, 2011. Yeah, its right around the corner. How did this movie fly under the radar for so long? Well the truth is that it hasn’t.
News of actors signing on has been trickling out of Hollywood for months. Here’s the cast that has been announced.
James McAvoy as Professor Charles Xavier
Michael Fassbender as Erik Lensherr / Magneto
Kevin Bacon as Sebastian Shaw
January Jones as Emma Frost / White Queen
Rose Byrne as Moira MacTaggert
Nicholas Hoult as Hank McCoy / Beast
Jennifer Lawrence as Raven Darkholme / Mystique
Oliver Platt as “The Man in Black”
Zoë Kravitz as Angel Salvadore
Caleb Landry Jones as Sean Cassidy / Banshee
Lucas Till as Alex Summers / Havok
Edi Gathegi as Armando Muñoz / Darwin
Jason Flemyng as Azazel
Álex González as Riptide / Janos Quested
Its also rumored to have a cameo of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. Hopefully First Class brings some class back to the X-men franchise (most of which was destroyed by the previous entry, X-men Origins: Wolverine).
I find it very interesting that the film is focusing mostly on Mutants that have not made an appearance in the films before. If they were to base the movie on the Comic Series of the same name it would have series mainstays Cyclops, Iceman, Beast, Jean Grey, Angel and Professor X. The departure from both the aforementioned comic series and normal X-men comic canon is understood since they have to fit this movie in the continuity of the film series, but to not have Cyclops and Jean just seems crazy.
Bryan Singer (X-men, X2) is helping produce the film, so at least someone competent is at the wheel. I like that most of the cast members are unknown. This gives the actors a chance to bury themselves in their roles without worrying about being the faceplate of the marketing campaign.
Filming started on the picture this month for its summer release next year. With Captain America, Thor and X-men coming out next year is shaping up to be the biggest Marvel summer ever.
