Friday, May 28, 2010

James McAvoy to Play Young Charles Xavier in X-Men: First-Class

Some really interesting piece of casting news I must say, Heatvision reports that Matthew Vaughn has cast British actor James McAvoy in the role of a young Charles Xavier in X-Men: First Class. Vaughn will direct the movie for FOX.

According to Fox, “First Class” will “chart the epic beginning of the X-Men saga. Before Charles Xavier and Eric Lensherr took the names Professor X and Magneto, they were two young men discovering their powers for the first time. Before they were archenemies, they were the 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.”

I really like James McAvoy as an actor and I think it's a good casting coup to have him play a younger version of the Patrick Stewart character. However, will he go bald or will he have a full set of hair? Apparently Fox has not revealed anything yet concerning the looks of McAvoy for the movie. I myself am not too keen in seeing him hairless . . . But the main question I guess would be to see how much McAvoy will try to channel Stewart himself or if the young actor will choose to make the role his own.

There's no casting news yet for a young Eric Lensherr a.k.a the future Magneto. I could amuse myself with a casting game by naming names like, oh, I don't know, Benedict Cumberbatch, who does look like a younger version of Ian McKellen. Just throwing it out there.

Bryan Singer developped the story for X-Men: First Class and will be producing the movie along with Lauren Shuler Donner and Simon Kinberg. Production will apparently start soon in London over the summer and the release of the movie is planned for June 3, 2011.

[Heatvision]

What do you think of this casting news? Do you believe McAvoy has what it takes to play a young Professor X? I guess this casting news also rules him out for the role of a certain hobbit . . .

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