On top of the first look at the cast of X-Men: First Class we recently got, 20th Century Fox has handed Hero Complex three more new images from the film, including a first look at Kevin Bacon as Sebastian Shaw.
However, the more interesting thing is the piece written by Geoff Boucher that accompanies the images. The first three paragraphs of Boucher’s article are dedicated to the tight timeling the production is on as we approach the film’s June 3 release date. “I’ve never worked under such time pressure,” director Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass) told Boucher. “The good thing about the independent world is I never even knew if I was going to get distribution. I’m used to finishing a film and then crossing your fingers that someone is going to like it. This is totally doing it the other way around. We’ve definitely got a release date and we’ve got to make it.”
However, Vaughn isn’t shying at throwing a few jabs at fellow summer superhero releases such as Green Lantern, Captain America: The First Avenger and Thor when he says, “With Green Lantern, I don’t know about that one, I couldn’t get my head around the trailer, to be honest … look, I will say the following: X-Men as a brand is bigger than Captain America, Thor and the Green Lantern, all put together.”
It was also interesting to read James McAvoy’s comments on the film, a film that is positioning itself not as a reboot, but one that fits squarely in line with the two Bryan Singer directed X-Men features and the Brett Ratner directed X-Men: The Last Stand. McAvoy said, “This isn’t a reboot, so I’m not replacing anyone, in which case you might want to try to be as different as possible and stay away from what had been done before… This is a prequel, so I’m the same character, just younger, but the challenge for me — and for Michael [Fassbender] — is to show the same person in a different place in their life; to show someone before they’re this bad guy, before they’re this saint. Charles wasn’t always a … monk, this selfless, sexless monk that he becomes.”
McAvoy plays a young Charles Xavier, the leader of the X-Men adn a role previously filled by Patrick Stewart in the X-Men trilogy as well as in X-Men Origins: Wolverine in 2009. Fassbender plays the young Erik Lehnsherr, the man who will become the evil mastermind Magneto, a role that was previously played by Ian McKellen.
The entire article is an interesting read and does offer a few ideas on the film’s synopsis which is still being kept under wraps. Now all fans have to wait for is a first look at the trailer, which I would have to assume is right around the corner. I’ve added the two additional photos directly below.
