Further updates on the Fox/Matthew Vaughn helmed X-Men: First Class project again today. According to Entertainment Weekly’s Hollywood Insider team, teen heart-throb Lucas Till has been added to the already swelling cast list for Matthew Vaughn’s X-Men: First Class. The details have the Hannah Montana: The Movie negotiating to play the role of Havok, otherwise known as Scott “Cyclops” Summers’ younger brother Alex.
The news follows the three updates we brought you yesterday that Aaron Johnson was rumoured to have signed on as Cyclops, alongside Nicholas Hoult as Beast and Caleb Landry Jones as Banshee. EW are claiming that the announcements may well me intentional misdirection, which I may be inclined to believe considering that Banshee and Havok played no part in the original X-Men: First Class comic run. But then, with the way comic book adaptations traditionally recut plot-lines and character arcs, you never can tell can how true to the originals the adap will be in the end.
If anyone is failing to keep up, so far the rumoured cast list looks a little like this (though there is a question mark over Aaraon Johnson, who EW categorically state will not be in the film):
- James McAvoy- Charles Xavier AKA Professor X
- Nicholas Hoult- Dr. Henry Philip “Hank” McCoy AKA Beast
- Michael Fassbender- Eric Lensherr AKA Magneto
- Aaron Johnson- Scott Summers AKA Cyclops
- Caleb Landry Jones- Sean Cassidy AKA Banshee.
- Lucas Till- Alex Summers AKA Havok
Additionally, Alice Eve is rumoured to be in talks to play Emma Frost (AKA White Queen though only way back when she was a villain). Fox still haven’t confirmed any of the casting of course, as they continue to keep their cards close to their chest, but noone is really doubting that the stories coming out are anything but true.
So, with the cast really beginning to take shape it looks like Vaughn is putting together a team of new and up-and-coming talents from both sides of the Atlantic, with a lean toward actors from our own fair British Isles. You can’t really argue with the decision to cast Johnson, with the Kick-Ass link, but McAvoy as Xavier and Hoult as Beast have hit me very unexpectedly, given my familiarity with the X-Men universe and how I have come to imagine those characters in my head. Still, the success of the project was always going to rely on Vaughn offering convincing new takes on characters that audiences have already come to be familiar with on-screen thanks to the existing four films in the franchise, so a wildly different look may help the cause.
Personally, the pick of the casting so far is Michael Fassbender as Magneto. The guy can seriously act, has incredible range and proved in Inglorious Basterds that he has the on-screen charisma that will translate perfectly to bring Magneto’s charming malevolence to the big screen.
Filming on First Class will start this summer in London, with the release date set to land around next June.
