Harry Knowles at AICN got a call from Bryan Singer, who gave a load of X-Men: First Class updates.  I’ll try to translate from Knowles English into regular English to give a summary of some of the conversation:

  • The movie takes place in the 1960s. JFK is president.  This puts a new spin on Oliver Platt playing “The Man In Black”, considering that sounds like something from a JFK assassination conspiracy.
  • Kevin Bacon will be playing Sebastian Shaw, leader of the New York branch of the Hellfire Club, of which Emma Frost (January Jones) will also be a member.
  • Professor Xavier (James McAvoy) and Magneto (Michael Fassbender) will be in their late 20s.  Xavier will have his hair and be able to walk, but will become paralyzed during the film.
  • This isn’t based on the First Class storyline in the comics.  Neither Cyclops nor Jean Grey will be in this.
  • Singer says the costumes will have more of a comic book feel and that director Matthew Vaughn is inspired by the era’s James Bond style gadgets.
  • This will be the first silver age Marvel movie.
  • Singer also confirmed some of the other cast members, such as Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique, Nicholas Hoult as Beast, Caleb Landry Jones as Banshee, Lucas Till as Havoc, Edi Gathegi as Darwin, and Jason Flemyng as Azazel.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to find Harry Knowles’s keyboard and put that caps lock key out of its misery.