Posted on: May 27th, 2010 James McAvoy To Play Young Professor X
The next film in the X-Men franchise, a prequel-reboot (a ‘preboot’) titled X-Men: First Class, is ramping up for production to begin this summer and we’ve finally got our first role cast, a major one at that.
Scottish actor James McAvoy (Wanted, Atonement) has signed on to play Professor Charles Xavier – aka Professor X – in the film, which centers around the formation of the famous school for gifted – aka mutant – children. While the film will feature younger versions of some of the core X-Men (though unconfirmed, it’s likely we’ll see major characters like Cyclops and Beast), First Class will focus on how Professor X and Magneto came to be, and ultimately came to be split.
It’s kind of hard to think of anyone other than Patrick Stewart for Xavier, the man was perfection, but I think McAvoy is a great choice seeing as we must have another X-Film.
I’m going to go ahead and cast my vote for Jamie Bell as a young Erik Lensherr/Magneto.
X-Men: First Class will be directed by Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass) and is set for release June 3, 2011.
Source: Heatvision