There’s been a lot of confusion over whether Michael Fassbender will play a young Magneto in the upcoming X-Men: First Class. A couple of weeks ago it was reported he was the top choice, with the suggestion being his signing on was purely dependent of deciding between the mutants and a rival possibility of playing the villain in the Spider-man reboot. Then a few days later, water was poured on this with sources saying Fassbender was refusing to test for the X-Men role.
However now EW says that the Inglourious Basterds star is indeed in talks to play the telekinetic mutant, and that he’s now decided he’d prefer to do First Class rather than Spider-man. The film will chart the early days of the relationship between holocaust survivor Erik Lenscherr (aka Magneto), and telepath Charles Xavier, played by James McAvoy, as they become friends and set up their school for mutants, only to eventually turn against one another.
Showbiz 411, which was first with the Fassbender news a couple of weeks ago, is also claiming another X-Men scoop, saying Bejamin Walker has joined the cast the the X-Men school’s first student, Walker has appeared in the likes of Kinsey and Flags Of Our Fathers, but has really been making waves this year on stage in New York in the Emo rock musical Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. Walker will play Hank McCoy, also known as Beast, an older version of whom was seen in the form of Kelsey Grammer in X-Men: The Last Stand.
X-Men: First Class is due to start shooting fairly soon, with Matthew Vaughn directing.