Michael Fassbender has accepted the offer to play the pivotal role of Magneto opposite James McAvoy’s Professor X in Matthew Vaughn and Bryan Singer’s X-Men: First Class.
With Matthew Vaughn directing and Bryan Singer overseeing the project, X-Men: First Class is well on its way towards bringing moviegoers back to the origins of the superheroes known as the X-Men, kickstarting the franchise in a new direction with some new characters and an entirely different cast. We already know that the man responsible for creating the X-Men, Professor Charles Xavier, will be played by James McAvoy, but now we know who will play his counterpart.
Showbiz411, the folks who exclusively broke the initial report that Fassbender was in the running for both the part of Professor X in X-Men: First Class, but also for the primary villain role in Sony’s 3D Spider-Man reboot, now have confirmation that the German actor has sided with the X-Men.
Fassbender has demonstrated an incredible show of force in recent years which began with his memorable role in 300, leading to key roles in Inglourious Basterds and Centurion among many others. He has 7 projects currently in the works and many more to come. Adding him to the cast, alongside McAvoy, emphasizes the direction that Fox wants to take the X-Men franchise in, a higher quality one.
Of the four X-Men films that have debuted since 2000, two of them (the most recent) have left a bad taste in many a mouth and we hope the negative feedback is helping force a change in the quality of product. By bringing Bryan Singer back in the loop, the director who made the only two good X-Men films, hopefully we’ll get a return to form.
Here’s where we stand with the X-Men: First Class cast so far:
Michael Fassbender as Magneto
James McAvoy as Professor X
Ben Walker as Beast
Amber Heard for Mystique
Rosamund Pike as Moira MacTaggert
Fassbender is a perfect choice to stand in the shoes of Ian McKellen for the role of young Magneto and an actor everyone can get behind. With X-Men: First Class seemingly including large elements of the story that would have been presented in the not-happening-anymore X-Men Origins: Magneto, Fassbender is the right fit to play the friend and eventual nemesis of Xavier.
We know director Matthew Vaughn and producer Bryan Singer are hard at work testing for the key roles of Cyclops and Jean Grey, so we can expect more announcements very soon with the film set to begin its UK shoot in the coming weeks.
