Heaps Of Juicy X-Men: First Class Details – Setting, Style, Characters

Bryan Singer has decided to open up and spill about the little mutant movie he’s producing right now, X-Men: First Class. This is the biggest info-burst on the film we’ve been given so far, and it all sounds pretty promising to me.

Here’s how the info got out. According to tonight’s Aint It Cool post, Singer called up Harry Knowles to “clarify some of what it is they’re doing” – this particular “they” being Matthew Vaughn, Jane Goldman, their First Class co-conspirators and the overlords at Fox. Harry is being used as a mouthpiece to spread the word to geeks everywhere. Again. It’s his privilege.

I’ll share some bullet points that break down the big news, though you may wish to read Harry’s full recount.

• The film might be called First Class but it doesn’t tell the story of the First Class comics.

• This story is set in the 60s, while JFK is president.

• We will see how Charles Xavier and Eric Lensherr met.

• We will see Xavier both before and after he is confined to a wheelchair, and learn how he was injured.

• McAvoy is not going bald – this is when Xavier had hair.

• The reason we haven’t heard any casting for Scott Summers/Cyclops is that he isn’t in the film.

• There’s no Jean Grey either.

• Matthew Vaughn is inspired by the James Bond look and tech.

• The costumes are more “comic bookish” than in the other installments, whatever that means.

• Kevin Bacon IS playing Sebastian Shaw, and January Jones’ Emma Frost will be joining him in the Hellfire Club.

• The first filming will be done at Oxford, where Xavier attended University in the 60s.

• Filming will take place in (at least) the US and the UK, but Russia will also be “represented”.

• Singer says there are characters in the film that we haven’t yet heard about. I assume he doesn’t just mean Hat Check Girl Number 2.

There’s a few other bits and pieces that aren’t entirely clear, perhaps due to how energetically the piece has been written, but definitely nothing big. Harry notes that this is the first Silver Age-style Marvel movie, and that’s a rather sweet notion. Stand by for yellow spandex.