With production beginning this summer, 20th Century Fox is moving full steam ahead on casting the next X-Men movie, titled X-Men: First Class, which is sort of like another origins movie that will follow Charles Xavier (played by Patrick Stewart in the earlier X-Men movies) and Erik Lensherr (played by Ian McKellan in the earlier movies) as they meet for the first time as young adults who are just beginning to come to terms with their powers, while putting together a team of mutants just like them.
Naturally, since we'll be going back in time for this (most of the film will probably be set during World War II or thereabouts), we need younger actors to portray these characters. Thus, James McAvoy has become the first actor to hop onboard; he'll be playing Charles Xavier, who later became Professor X. Still waiting for them to cast the Lensherr character, as that will be the person who eventually becomes Magneto.
So far we don't know which other mutants will be involved, though we've been told that it will be a mix of old and new (with Wolverine possibly making an appearance, we hope). Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass) will become the latest director to tackle an X-Men movie, and after seeing how much fun his action scenes were in Kick-Ass, I have faith he'll deliver the goods come June 3, 2011, when the film is due to hit theaters.
Are you excited for more X-Men?
