Bryan Singer Reveals 'X-Men: First Class' Details

Call me a cynic, but I just haven’t been able to muster up any real excitement about Matthew Vaughn’s X-Men: First Class recently. Yes, based on what we saw with Kick-Ass, Vaughn is a capable director when it comes to comic book adaptations. And, yes, the fact that X-Men and X2: X-Men United director Bryan Singer is returning to produce the forthcoming prequel inspires some confidence. But let’s be honest: half of the X-Men movies have been utter garbage (X-Men: The Last Stand, X-Men Origins: Wolverine), and if we look back at the original two films, they haven’t aged as well as we might have hoped. So why should we, comic book nerds, really care about a prequel film in a franchise that we only kinda, sorta care about in 2010?

Well, Singer himself recently gave a few reasons for us to start paying attention when he called Ain’t It Cool News’ Harry Knowles. Here are a few of the details Singer touched on:

• The film takes place in the 1960s, grounding it firmly in the civil rights movement.
• We’ll get to see Professor Xavier (James McAvoy) with hair, before he is bound to a wheelchair. Both he and his eventual nemesis Erik Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender) will be in their late 20s.
• January Jones and Kevin Bacon are playing Emma Frost and Sebastian Shaw, meaning that the Hellfire Club will play a major role in the film.
• X-Men: First Class will have an “international” feel, giving it what Knowles describes as a “James Bond vibe.”
• The costumes will be “far more comic bookish.” Does that mean Cyclops, Jean Grey and co. will be donning the old-school blue and yellow tights? Stay tuned, True Believers.

X-Men: First Class starts filming on August 31. For the full story, click here.