Twentieth Century Fox has closed a deal with James McAvoy (Wanted, The Last King of Scotland) to star as Charles Xavier in X-Men: First Class, to be directed by Matthew Vaughn.
X-Men: First Class begins production this summer for a June 3, 2011 release. Bryan Singer, who conceived the story for “First Class” and directed the original X-Men and its sequel X2, is producing along with Lauren Shuler Donner and Simon Kinberg.
Additional casting is underway and will be announced shortly.
X-Men: First Class, following the classic Marvel mythology, charts the epic beginning of the X-Men saga. Before Charles Xavier and Erik 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 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.
