Aint It Cool News is feeling pretty certain that the young squad leader of the X-Men has been cast in Matthew Vaughn’s X-Men: First Class, and that it’s none other than Aaron Johnson. Johnson starred as Kick-Ass in Vaughn’s last film, Kick-Ass, and had also been rumored to be in the running for the lead in Spider-Man (whose casting director must be sharing an office with Vaughn’s or something).
Johnson’s an okay choice for the role; weirdly I don’t think he’s stiff enough. Josh Hutcherson had been a name I had heard bandied about and I liked him for the part – he’s much more starchy. But then again, Johnson’s apparently a real actor, so maybe he can shed the aw-shucks charm and be a more rigid, square dude when he dons a ruby red visor.
Even though I’m not psyched about Johnson for the role, he’s a fine choice in general. Some site ran a story this week that Fox is trying to turn First Class into a Twilight clone by stuffing it with hot guyz, but the casting so far – while heavy on hot guys – doesn’t seem to support that. While the actors announced are all foine, they’re also fine actors.