Matthew Vaughn's X-Men: First Class prequel was one of the most lauded superhero movies of 2011, and Fox CEO Tom Rothman told us last year that they're doing everything possible to get the director back for a sequel. In a new Deadline story about Fox's President of Production Emma Watts renewing her own contract through 2015, there's a matter-of-fact mention that the company has closed the deal for Vaughn to return to direct the unnamed sequel, working from a script being written by Simon Kinberg (X-Men: The Last Stand, Jumper, Sherlock Holmes) and with Bryan Singer once again producing.

It's a given that all the original cast from the first movie signed a multiple picture deal in their contract so we expect James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender returning as Professor X and Magneto, respectively. It may be some time before we learn whether any of the rest of the cast, such as Jennifer Lawrence's Mystique or January Jones' Emma Frost, will be included in a follow-up to the prequel or if any new X-Men characters will be introduced.