Both X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine have shown us that the young Professor Charles Xavier looks just like a CGI’d Patrick Stewart in an unconvincing wig, but Matthew Vaughn’s X-Men: First Class looks set to reveal that he was, in fact, a Scot with genuine follicles.
Wanted‘s James McAvoy will play the young Xavier in First Class, according to the LA Times, suggesting that the movie will take either place at an earlier time-period than Wolverine or, less likely, reboot the franchise altogether to de-age the character and pretend that Patrick Stewart never existed. While I have no problems with my countrymen playing younger versions of classic characters (See: “Ewan McGregor was one of the few good things about the Star Wars prequels”), McAvoy’s casting still seems at odds with the Xavier we’ve seen in the previous movies, even knowing that First Class is supposed to show us the more active, less placid Xavier in his earlier days. Who knows? Maybe we’ll get to see how he broke his legs, and he’ll get the chance to emote to his heart’s content.
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