Twentieth Century Fox’s prequel to the X-Men franchise has added yet another relative unknown mutant character to its large cast. Seemingly picking and choosing characters from different stories and different time periods from the Marvel Comics, fans are very curious and arguably confused at the story direction of X-Men: First Class.
With many unfamiliar-to-the-mainstream characters filling out the ranks of First Class, it’s emphasized further that the focus of Bryan Singer and Matthew Vaughn’s next superhero flick will be on James McAvoy’s Charles Xavier and Michael Fassbender’s Erik Lensherr characters, and less on the actual X-Men team. McAvoy and Fassbender of course are playing the younger versions of Professor X and Magneto respectively – the two most integral characters of X-history – and they will now be joined by the character known as Riptide.
The Spanish website Fotogramas reported that 30 year-old Álex González joined the cast of X-Men: First Class as the mutant called Tornado but an update sent to Comic Book Movie clarifies that he will be playing Riptide. In Marvel Comics, Riptide is a villainous character who works for Mr. Sinister’s Marauders. His powers allow him to spin incredibly fast and to generate calcium deposits in the form of sharp objects for which he uses his speed to launch at enemies as spikes or shuriken-type projectiles.
While early rumors pointed towards Kevin Bacon’s character potentially being Mr. Sinister, it was later confirmed that he would be playing Sebastian Shaw, making Riptide yet another unusual addition to the First Class roster.
Riptide spinning and hurling shurikens as his opponents
With González being 30, he along with Edi Gathegi who’s playing Darwin are quite a bit older than the younger Havok, Banshee and Beast who are played by actors in their late teens. As suggested by our pal David Bentley at The Geek Files, part of the plot of First Class may follow the Deadly Genesis storyline of the books where Gathegi’s Darwin character is part of a special team charged with the mission of saving a team of X-Men characters on the island of Krakoa which included Havok and Beast (who will be in the film) along with Cyclops, Jean, Polaris and Angel who we are told are not in the film.
Fox is in fact location scouting Jekyll Island, off the coast of Georgia, so take that how you will. It’s possible Riptide may be a part of that same team if that story thread is part of the X-Men: First Class. Otherwise, logic would point towards him being another villain of the film. Although, perhaps it’s not logical to assume any of these characters are sticking to their comic roots.
Keeping that in mind when considering Matthew Vaughn’s words about X-Men: First Class being a prequel, but also a quasi-reboot of sorts similar to what J.J. Abrams did with Star Trek, and time travel and/or alternate realities are not out of the question in explaining how all of these characters fit together.
As we hear more on the story and characters of First Class, we’ll hopefully be able to hammer down some confirmations on the rumors and speculation.
Share your thoughts in the comments and with us on Twitter @rob_keyes and @screenrant.
X-Men: First Class opens June 3, 2011.
Sources: Fotogramas (via CBM), The Geek Files
Ryan Reynolds Drops Out of 'Highlander' Reboot 
No Loki in 'Avengers 2' 
'Man of Steel' Director & Writer on What Has to Happen in 'Man of Steel 2' 
'Man of Steel' Ending Controversy 
Did they just put the names of characters in a hat, then shake it up, and randomly pick a name?
matt
I don’t think they used a hat, possibly a toilet or used condom.
LOL!!!!!!!!!
I am thinking time travel will have a lot to do with the story. And that Mr. Sinister is in the background ala iron man with the fing fang foom stuff as people are guessing.
This movie is going 2 suck, and I’ll tell you why… 1.There are way to amny characters in this movie for anyone to “steal” the show, 2. People (even some die hard Marvel fans) don’t know who some of these characters are and 3.How can they make a decent movie (plot wise) with all these charters and movie movie stars in it?
1: Movies with ensemble casts can work. See Snatch, Crash, Lord of the Rings, Ocean’s 11….there’s a ton, man.
2: People didn’t know who Iron Man was. The audience’s awareness of the characters when going in to the movie has nothing to do with anything, especially since the movie will probably establish who they are and what they’re about. It’s not like the movie will just assume you know who everyone is.
3:You’re just repeating #1, a large cast does not automatically equal bad movie. And if by “all these….movie stars in it?” you’re implying that a large number of name actors in the cast automatically means it’ll be bad I have two counterpoints. Firstly, see my above list of good ensemble movies. Second, this movie hardly has a cast overflowing with A-list actors and actresses. Kevin Bacon is by FAR the most well known cast member. Who else have we got? McAvoy? On his way, but hardly a “star”. January Jones? Nope. Zoe Kravitz?. No, not a star.
So who are all these “movie stars” you’re talking about.
I see precisely 1. MAYBE 1 and 1/2.
also I believe this power/ability was use in xmen 3 and heroes. I think
hopefully this is a sign gambit and sabretooth could be in the movie.
Maybe working for sebastian shaw as the marauders.. I wish it was sinister though
X-Men: First Class opens June 3, 2011.
X-Men: First Class casting closes June 2, 2011.
Comment of the year right here. ROFL
I’ll never understand the “massive cast” or “extremely large cast” that all the sites continue to say in regards to this film. The cast is no bigger than X1, and has yet to be as big as X2′s cast.. or even TDK.
i think what you meant was ‘As we hear more ridiculous news in regards to the messed up story and characters of First Class, we’ll hopefully be able to hammer down some confirmations on the stupidity of fox going ahead and making this PoS’. just thought i’d point that out
If they wanted to go the “alternate reality or time travel” route, they could have and SHOULD have just brought in Bobby Drake(IceMan),Hank McCoy(Beast)back into the past with Scott Summers(Cyclops) and Jean Grey(Marvel Girl)STILL in the TRUE First Class team. I said months ago that they should have just had Beast create a time machine to try to undo what happened with the whole X-Men 3 fiasco,that way they could have actually done A “REAL” X-Men First Class prequel AND A “REAL” reboot at the same time. Now they’ve unnecessarily created a too convoluted “whole other X Universe”. They could have just used the Shadow King as Professor X’s first villain but they messed that up too,no they wanted the Hellfire Club,of all people this early in the story??? Ok watch how this becomes more convoluted and sinks further into unnecessary madness.
This film will be a giant cesspool of mutated excrement.
The letter (x) is the only common denominator this has to MARVEL’S original source material.
This movie is 46 and 3.
You know, I would like to see some continuity…better yet, I would like to see Marvel helm this. I think it is a wasted movie opportunity. Marvel is doing some really good things, and continuity is one of them. Sure they have some actor changes, but they are keeping everything linked. What this means for the movie business is more revenue, and for us as an audience, a giant movie lineage that we can own after it’s all done and continue to watch a series of dozens of movies all linked together!
I can’t wait for the day when FOX and SONY lose the rights to XMEN, Fantastic Four, and Spiderman. There are so many links Marvel could do with these properties…if they wanted to, they could connect this original Avengers concept with the Ultimate Avengers (even the New Avengers with my favorite character The Sentry!!). This would cause an unbelievable amount of stories that could create multiple movies over Civil War, character origins, and even the dreaded movie to TV series concept (in my opinion, this concept could be done well if properly funded and if Marvel had sole creative rights with the series).
Wow…what a concept! Marvel doing a better job with their own properties than Faux or Sony. I can’t believe someone hasn’t brought that up till now! I mean….IT’S GENIUS!!!!
(snicker….)
never gunna happen.
Do I sense some sarcasm? lol Well you are right, it is pretty obvious that Marvel would do a better job. The thing you have to realize is that these movies are under contract with FOX or Sony studios. Once the rights go up again, Marvel will probably snag them up and just reboot them anyway (probably so their continuity isn’t messed up).
I just don’t think that Fox or Sony will let the rights go to these franchises, though. They are making WAY to much cash on them for that to happen. We’ll sooner see an Electro movie or a Cyclops solo film than those film rights ever being reverted back to Marvel.
Ugh, that sounds like such a terrible idea…I wish these studios would at least read a comic book or two, because they just take the characters and run with them.
Look out! Radioactive Man. Where the hell is Fall Out Boy?
Maybe they should just list the characters they are not using and the actors they have not cast, the list would be a lot shorter and it would save us all a lot of time.
You know, I originally was excited for this movie because I thought that Matthew Vaughn was a good addition (He worked on Kick-Ass). Now, I’m not so sure. I’m actually half-curious and half-dontgiveash*t. So yeah, DIE FOX!
Yeah I think Vaughn will be directing from pool side through the Professor via Cerebro.
You know what they should just fire Vaughn and hire Shyamalan to replace him. If your going to seriously F-up a movie why not just go for broke???
its a shame,
the thing that really captivates x men fan are the characters.
they have managed to gather a list of obscure characters that i care nothing about
bravo.
‘Nuff said.