While there’s been a lot of casting news on X-Men: First Class in the last few weeks, one thing the makers have been keeping close to their chest are the plot details. While we’ve known it’ll be set before X-Men trilogy and look at Professor X and Magneto’s friendship before they took very different paths, that’s about all the details we’ve had. Indeed, even when they announced Kevin Bacon as the villain, they kept the character name to themselves.
However, now producer Bryan Singer has been talking to AICN, and given them plenty of details on the film, including the plot. The movie will cover how Professor X (James McAvoy) and Magento (Michael Fassbender) first meet and discuss their similar goals of mutants and humans living together as one. Singer also revealed that Professor X won’t be in a wheelchair for the whole film, and that it’ll show how he came to need to use one.
He also said that as it’ll be set in the 1960s, before the original comic book, Cyclops and Jean grey won’t be in the film (although Cyclops’s brother, Havoc, played by Lucas Till, will be). Perhaps the biggest news though is that Bacon will be playing Sebastian Shaw, meaning that The Hellfire Club will play a large part in the movie, seemingly with the Victorian costumes and mens club attitude first seen as John Byrne drew them in the 80s. In the Marvel Uniververse, The Hellfire Club are a little like the Illuminati, a group of people who attempt to steer world events for their own agenda.
Singer suggests that what they want to do is create a film that truly reflects the Silver Age of Marvel comics, promising that the costumes will be far more comic book than in other X-Men movies, reflecting the pop art-ish feel of 1960s comics. The movie begins shooting on August 31st, with Matthew Vaughn directing. Singer adds that while it’ll be filmed in the UK and US, these will double for numerous locations around the world, with First Class hopefully having a truly international feel.