Casting for Bryan Singer and Director Matthew Vaughn's X-Men: First Class is well underway and it's very clear that they, along with Fox, are doing their best to give the franchise a fresh start with an entirely new set of actors.

So far, we already know James McAvoy will be playing the younger version of Patrick Stewart's Professor Charles Xavier and the latest rumors have the talented Michael Fassbender possibly joining the cast as Eric Lensherr/Magneto. Reports also indicate that they're testing and searching for actors to take over the key roles of Cyclops and Jean Grey, confirming that no one familiar to the franchise will be playing the characters in First Class.

Adding to the possible talent behind the latest X-Men project, Forces of Geek are reporting that Rosamund Pike (Die Another Day, Surrogates) is testing for the part of Emma Frost in the series prequel.

While we do not yet know who will comprise the X-Men: First Class roster, it's been pretty certain all along that Emma Frost would play a key role. Her character was of strong interest to Bryan Singer back when he was still set to direct X-Men 3 and she ended up being introduced when played by Tahyna Tozzi in X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

My only confusion about the possibility of this casting choice is that Pike, who was apparently spotted with Emma Frost comics in hand, is 31 years old. As we know, X-Men: First Class acts as the prequel to the X-Men trilogy and follows a younger (teenage?) version of the first students at Professor Xavier's School for the Gifted. As we saw in the continuity-crippling X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the character of Emma Frost was depicted as a youngster at the same approximate age as Cyclops and the other young mutants rescued by Professor X at the end of the movie.

If they choose a 31-year-old to play Emma and a late-teen or early-twenty-something to play Cyclops, that may not work if they're planning on playing up the relationship between Scott Summers and Emma (love triangle, anyone?).

If Pike is picked up for role, I'd expect the movie would be playing into the earlier storylines of the character from the books where she may be more of a villainous character or perhaps she could take on a teaching role for Xavier or for herself in her own Mutant school/training program (that was played up in the Ultimate X-Men storyline).

Continue to page 2 for a little theory on Emma Frost's role in X-Men: First Class...

Wild Theory

If you're an X-Men fan, you may be excited to hear that the folks at Fox have had several discussions about the character of Cable and introducing him into the movies, thereby bringing in theme of time-travel for the franchise to play with. I've had the long-standing theory that if Cable is introduced into the movies, his origins would obviously differ significantly from the comics due to the confines of the continuity that has been constructed thus far.

However, if they keep the most important aspect of Cable for the films - that he is the son of Cyclops - then they could change his mother to be Emma Frost in the movies instead of Madelyne Pryor (wife of Cyclops and clone of at-the-time dead Jean Grey...). In current X-Men comics, Cyclops and Emma Frost are a couple but in the movies, it would have to follow the reverse order in that they could be an item before Cyclops becomes engaged to Jean Grey (since they both "die" in X3).

Could Cable be in X-Men: First Class movie as son of Cyclops?

Bringing this back around to the topic at hand; If Rosamund Pike is selected as Emma Frost, I don't think this theory has any wings due to the likely age gap between her and young Cyclops. Then again, First Class is poised to become its own franchise if it does well so we'll have to wait and see what they do with Emma and Scott's relationship and whether or not Cable is ever utilized in the movies.

With the talent behind X-Men: First Class and the talent being looked at to go in front of the cameras, this movie might just be what Fox needs to right this franchise.

Can Rosamund Pike pull off Emma Frost? What do you expect of the character in X-Men: First Class?

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If you’re a fan, check out our articles on What We Need From X-Men 4 and on What X-Men 3 Could Have Been.

X-Men: First Class opens June 3, 2011.

Source: Forces of Geek

Emma Frost sketch by jasonpal