Now that Kick-Ass director Matthew Vaughn is locked in to direct the X-Men: First Class for Fox, taking over for Bryan Singer who's now just acting as a producer on the project, it's time to sign the cast so they can start production this summer.

While I assumed we'd see some familiar faces take over the key roles of Cyclops and Emma Frost, namely Tim Pocock and Tahyna Tozzi from X-Men Origins: Wolverine, it appears that may not be the case. According to Heat Vision, the word in Hollywood is that Singer is taking the opportunity while casting for Jack the Giant Killer to find qualified candidates to play Cyclops and Jean Grey.

If this is actually happening, that would mean they could be bringing in an entirely new set of actors to play the young mutants in X-Men: First Class and not keeping those we saw in the Wolverine solo movie.

Is that good or bad? I hate recasting characters in movies still fresh in the mind of audiences, but in this case I wouldn't mind. The only young callout mutants from X-Men Origins: Wolverine were Gambit, Cyclops and Emma and of those characters, only Tim Pocock's Cyclops looked or acted close to the character we know from the Marvel Universe.

Another thing to keep in mind is what other characters Singer will be casting for. We've discussed several times before on Screen Rant that the roster is inherently flawed already because of how they introduced and utilized characters in the X-Men film timeline. Now Fox is forced to deviate in their First Class roster selection quite a bit from what we know the original X-Men team as.

The 5 core characters I've expected to see in X-Men: First Class since before Wolverine debuted are as follows:

  • Cyclops
  • Jean Grey
  • Emma Frost
  • Beast
  • Storm

To round out the cast, we could see Magneto's kids since we know the story is heavily focused on the relationship between Magneto and Professor Charles Xavier. I wouldn't be surprised to see if they work together to build the school, Cerebro and teach the first mutants before they part ways due to clashing views on mutantkind and its place in modern society.

We also know that they'll be creating new characters for X-Men: First Class, whether that be mutants at the school and/or villains, we do not yet know. We can however, expect plenty of casting announcements soon as the plan is for X-Men: First Class to begin shooting in the next few months for a fast release next summer.

How do you feel about Cyclops and others being recast again?

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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.

[Update: James McAvoy has signed on to play Professor X in X-Men: First Class]

Source: Heat Vision