Having just re-watched X-Men: First Class on Blu-ray, I was impressed all over again. The movie grossed $353 million worldwide, prompting the inevitable talk of a sequel, yet it has been some time since I heard any news. A quick search has revealed that movement is slow… but inevitable.
Simon Kinberg, the screenwriter behind Sherlock Holmes and X-Men: The Last Stand (yes, that one), has already been tapped to worked on the script.
Director Matthew Vaughn was seen to be rather stressed and over-wrought prior to the release of X-Men: First Class, as news broke about hurried re-mounts and leaked production stills. January Jones was very open regarding the frazzled and hectic nature of the filming leading many to worry over the end result. This time around, Vaughn seems quite calm and composed, perhaps accepting the success of the film and security in having his cast locked in for a 3 picture deal.
Many people, Fassbender and McAvoy included, give a lot of the credit for the first film’s success to Vaughn and his frequent collaborator, screenwriter Jane Goldman. Vaughn’s involvement most likely won’t be decided until Simon Kinberg, the man Fox hired to write the sequel, delivers a script, and Goldman’s almost entirely depends on Vaughn, according to the screenwriter herself.
Goldman spoke with MTV News while promoting “The Woman in Black,” and she said she understands the strong push for a sequel.
“James and Michael brought so much to them that I think it’s entirely natural to be talking about where those characters would go next,” she said. “It was inherent in their stories and their arcs. There are so many interesting places to go.”
If Goldman does eventually work on the picture, it will most likely be a rewrite of Kinberg’s script, but that all depends on what Vaughn decides to do. “In terms of what’s going on with that, again from my point of view, it’s down to what Matthew [Vaughn] decides to do,” she said. “If he decides he wants to direct the next one and if he wants me on board, I’m 100 percent there.” (via MTV)
Of all the supporting cast members who are expected to return, I have to confess that Jason Flemyng as Azazel has me the most excited, but of course McAvoy and Fassbender are the most important. Blazing a trail toward the 2000 X-Men film, there is a lot of ground to cover, but only if it is traveled wisely. A large part of the success that First Class enjoyed was due to the fact that it developed the ideas of the previous X-Men movies so well. It’s a compelling story. So the sequel needs to be based on a script of equal or greater strength.
Promoting Ridley Scott’s Prometheus and Steven Soderbergh’s Haywire, young Magneto Michael Fassbender spoke somewhat gravely about being locked in for two more films as the red-clad mutant: “I have no choice. They contracted me for two options. I gotta get down with it,” he joked. “We’re at the ground level, but yeah I think there’s going to be another one.” (via Comingsoon)
James McAvoy was somewhat more positive and excited about the potential for more development for Professor X:
“…I know that with Charles, you either have to write him out of the movie or give him an interesting story. He can’t just become the guy that we saw in the first three movies. He just had two major things happen to him. He’s lost his best friend, essentially, and he’s just been paralyzed from the waist down. Which is just a huge, huge blow to his considerable ego. So he’s got to deal with that.
And I don’t think we can just brush over that and go,’yeah I’m in a wheelchair now,’ because Professor X is in a wheelchair. You’ve got to deal with that, I don’t care if he’s a superhero and has brain powers or not, he’s just had a huge part of his physical life taken away from him, by someone he cares about more than anyone else. So he’s got to deal with that. That’s part of the interesting ideas that we’re talking about with Matthew [Vaughn], that Matthew’s very excited about which I think is fantastic, but I can’t really get into them with you because they may (or may not) form the spine of the story.” (via Screenrant)
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