After drawing out the casting process to the speed of your average tectonic plate, Bryan Singer has finally opened up about X-Men: First Class. After Alice Eve was mistakenly touted as Emma Frost and Aaron Johnson was incorrectly linked to the role of Scott Summers, coherent confirmation was required from someone in the know.
In a conversation with Aint It Cool News‘ Harry Knowles, Singer discussed the story, casting choices and setting in depth. Most importantly, however, the producer made it clear that the film will not follow the comic-of-the-same-name’s continuity, which already goes some way to explaining the casting inconsistencies debated across the interweb to date.
In terms of story, the film will follow the early relationship between Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr, the former with hair and the ability to walk. With filming commencing at Oxford University, the 1960s setting’s civil rights movement will foreshadow the mutant registration act touched upon in the existing films. More tantalisingly, Singer revealed that the audience will finally get to see the classic X-Men costumes as yet ignored by the film series.
When pressed on casting news, Singer revealed that Cyclops and Jean Grey will not appear in the movie. While he confirmed that Lucas Till will be appearing as Havoc, Cyclops himself will be sitting this one out despite his introduction in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Similarly, January Jones was confirmed as Emma Frost and Kevin Bacon’s role announced as Sebastian Shaw, confirming the involvement of The Hellfire Club.
First Class will be the most international of the X-films according to Singer, stepping away from the rampant Americanization of characters in the series to date, which saw Colossus and Pyro lose a large part of their identity. With locations in the U.S. and U.K. confirmed, there will also be involvement from the Soviet Union as well.
While the involvement of Frost and the lack of Scott Summers, who both appeared in Wolverine, throw up numerous continuity issues, there is less discrepancy between First Class and the original trilogy. That said, the inclusion of Nicholas Hoult’s Beast cannot be remedied by discounting the canonical standing of Wolverine. It is, however, in keeping with Singer’s admission that First Class the movie will not follow First Class the comics verbatim. Furthermore, it has been known for some time that Matthew Vaughn was planning a quasi-reboot/prequel of the X-Men franchise, inconsistencies were unavoidable.
Due for U.K. release in June, 2011, X-Men: First Class will go before camera’s at the end of this month.
