The ensemble cast for the next X-Men film is really starting to come together now. Titled X-Men: First Class, this prequel of sorts will take us back to when Professor X and Magneto first met, befriended one another and then ultimately became enemies as each assembled a group of mutants under their command.

James McAvoy has come aboard as Professor X (once played by Patrick Stewart in the original trilogy), and Michael Fassbender (Inglourious Basterds) has just officially signed on as Magneto (once played by Ian Mckellen). As far as which mutants will be involved, Benjamin Walker (Flags of Our Fathers) will play Beast, and Amber Heard is rumored to be playing Mystique.
 
Alice EveToday’s news revolves around Alice Eve (she played the lead girl in She’s Out of My League), who Deadline claim is in talks to play Emma Frost in the film. Frost didn’t appear as a character in the original trilogy (though at one point Sigourney Weaver was going to play her in X-Men: The Last Stand when Bryan Singer was directing it). However, the character did show up as a young girl in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, where she was played by Tahyna Tozzi.
 
Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass) is scheduled to direct X-Men: First Class, and as of now the film will hit theaters on June 3, 2011.
 
Are you excited about this cast, or is it missing someone like, say, Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine? And if Jackman doesn’t sign on to reprise the role in some capacity, can an X-Men film survive without the Wolverine character in the mix?