I guess he’s going to be Teaching Assistant X, huh?

James McAvoy, a robust 31 years old this April, will be playing Charles Xavier in X-Men: First Class. So if you were wondering how young the film was skewing, now you know. I knew the X-Men would be young – one of those five kids named for Spider-Man won’t be playing Peter Parker, but is up for the role of Scott Summers. Wish I could say more – but I sort of assumed that the roles of Professor X and Magneto would go to actors with a touch of… gravitas or something. I wonder if Christopher Mintz-Plasse will be playing Magneto?

Here’s the official synopsis of the movie from Fox: “[The film will] chart the epic beginning of the X-Men saga. Before Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr took the names Professor X and Magneto, they were two young men discovering their powers for the first time. Before they were archenemies, they were the closest of friends, working together, with other Mutants (some familiar, some new), to stop the greatest threat the world has ever known. In the process, a rift between them opened, which began the eternal war between Magneto’s Brotherhood and Professor X’s X-Men.”

I was kind of hoping it was a straight, younger reboot, but it sounds like a balls-out prequel. Ugh. Who needs this/

Matthew Vaughn, fresh off Kick-Ass, is directing. Shooting starts this summer.

via Heat Vision