20th Century Fox just sent over a few hi-res versions of some X-Men: First Class stills that have been making the rounds along with a larger version of that teaser one sheet we saw yesterday. Among them was the image above of Michael Fassbender as Erik Lehnsherr (aka Magneto). It had the following caption:
Michael Fassbender portrays Erik Lehnsherr, who has the power to control magnetism. Lehnsherr is determined to exact revenge on the monstrous evil who “created” him.
The image debuted yesterday at SlashFilm where they also had quotes from First Class director Matthew Vaughn discussing that cast photo you see directly below.
“I freaked out on [Fox] yesterday. I don’t know where the hell that came from,” Vaughn told Slashfilm. “I don’t think it’s a Fox image. It’s not a pre-approved image. When I found out, I said, what the fuck is this shit, and Fox is running around trying to figure out what happened as well. I agree. It’s like a bad Photoshop, which maybe it was by someone. It didn’t reflect the movie. I was shocked when I saw it. I was like ‘Jesus Christ’…”
Fans were quick to slam the pic in the article I posted with one commenter saying, “Disappointing first look, thought this project had the potential to be cool but it looks like a big Fantastic Four group. Too bad.”
Fantastic Four you say? Vaughn addressed that statement saying:
It’s definitely more serious and more realistic, and I think that’s something that had to happen. That’s my feeling about the world we live in right now. I think the glossy colorful superhero film sorta had its day. I think Batman Begins started it, The Dark Knight, dare I say Kick-Ass was fun and it had some real pop to it, but at the same time we grounded it in reality as much as possible. I think that’s what the audience wants. And that why that image is more Fantastic Four than it is X-Men. And I say that with all due respect to the Fantastic Four team. That was then and this is now. It’s a different time. I mean, look at me — I’m not exactly mister light.
Another commenter addressed another issue saying, “If this is supposed to be the X-men when they first started, then where are the blue and yellow suits? I don’t remember any of these guys aside from Beast as the prototype of the team. If you are going to say it’s in the beginning, you really should stay true to the comic book.”
To that comment, Vaughn has the answer also telling SlashFilm, “I’m a fan of X-Men. We’re not bastardizing X-Men, I’m trying to get them back to being whole again.” He continued, “The costumes are blue and yellow as well, because fuck it, lets take it back it the original. Also, by the way, those costumes are hardly in the movie. The main costumes are like these cool 60s James Bond.”
You can read SlashFilm’s complete write up right here and here is also a second image they debuted of James McAvoy as Charles Xavier.
I’ve added both of these images to the gallery with a couple of other higher resolution images as well. You can check all of them out right here.
