James McAvoy is the first actor confirmed for a role in Matthew Vaughn’s X-Men: First Class, the prequel film set up at 20th Century Fox charting the beginning of the X-Men saga. McAvoy steps into shoes that have previously been filled by Patrick Stewart in the first three X-Men films and it should be interesting to see McAvoy as a bald-headed telepath, especially considering I just don’t see it at the moment.
Fox has described the film as set before Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr took the names Professor X and Magneto, taking a look at the two characters as young men discovering their powers for the first time. Before they were archenemies, they were closest of friends, working together, with other Mutants (some familiar, some new), to stop the greatest threat the world has ever known. In the process, a rift between them opened, which began the eternal war between Magneto’s Brotherhood and Professor X’s X-Men.
How established characters such as Wolverine, Cyclops and Storm will play in the equation is currently unknown.
Fox is ramping up production with a plan to begin shooting this summer in London for a June 3, 2011 release.
