In a bit of non-news, the executives behind-the-scenes at Twentieth Century Fox are reportedly discussing sequel potential for X-Men: First Class, a film that so far has achieved the highest critical acclaim against its comic book movie competition this year.

Producers Lauren Shuler Donner and Bryan Singer, director Matthew Vaughn and most of the cast have already opened in interviews up about their desires and ideas for a sequel, and since First Class made money and fans ate it up, of course it's getting one. It's just a matter of when.

The plan from the beginning was to use Singer's First Class story as a way to quasi-reboot the franchise and kickstart a second full trilogy of team-based X-Men films. It clearly worked so it won't be long before we see the official greenlight on a sequel. According to The Geek Files, Fox is "discussing sequels internally" which they undoubtedly have been since opening weekend.

Both Singer and Vaughn have plenty of ideas for X-Men: First Class 2 which would likely keep the series set in the '60s, but based a few years later, again tied into real historical events. When you think about it, they could go on with many more films before needing to introduce some of the characters we met in Bryan Singer's first X-Men film (Cyclops, Jean Grey and Storm, etc.).

With The Wolverine beginning production in October (according to star Hugh Jackman) and X-Men Origins: Deadpool already having a script, Ryan Reynolds starring and Tim Miller directing, a sequel to First Class will likely come after those two projects. There's also the X-Men 4 that Donner keeps mentioning...

X-Men First Class Hellfire Club Banner

Although X-Men: First Class didn't hit the box office numbers of the last three X-Men features, it still has earned over $335 million worldwide as of this weekend and sits almost tied with X2: X-Men United with the highest review aggregation score on Rotten Tomatoes out of all five X-movies to date. And that's without the star power of the series regulars and it being a period piece. That just goes to show how influential the First Class trailers were and how significant the "X-Men" brand still is.

Let's hope those secondary characters get some dialogue if they're returning for the sequel. And give Jason Flemyng's Azazel some more screen time!

X-Men: First Class was penned by Ashley Miller, Zack Stentz, Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn. It starred James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Kevin Bacon, January Jones, Jennifer Lawrence, Rose Byrne, Nicholas Hoult, Jason Flemyng, Zoë Kravitz, Lucas Till, Oliver Platt, Ray Wise, Edi Gathegi, Caleb Landry Jones and Álex González. Most of the (surviving) group should return of the sequel.

-

Follow me on Twitter @rob_keyes.

Source: The Geek Files