Bryan Singer Spills The Beans On ‘X-Men: First Class’; ’60s Setting, Hellfire Club As Villains

Despite casting being mostly wrapped up this week, and filming kicking off any day now for a release date next June, surprisingly little has been known about the actual details of “X-Men: First Class.” We were aware that it would pick up aspects of the abandoned “X-Men Origins: Magneto” script, featuring Professor X and Magneto as young men, friends and allies, facing a greater threat, but, considering the wide-ranging cast and ragtag group of characters, taken from various incarnations of the X-Men, we weren’t quite sure what to expect.

Fortunately, Bryan Singer gave Harry Knowles at Ain’t It Cool News a ring, and filled in some of the blanks. First of all, the film, as previously speculated, will take place in the 1960s — the era of JFK, MLK and significant social change — ensuring a civil rights undertone and for the story to tie in with the continuity of the existing films; hence why, aside from Beast and Mystique, who were theoretically older, or at least caked under enough make-up that it doesn’t matter so much, none of the other mutants from Singer’s films have been announced for the film (indeed, Singer confirms that Cyclops and Jean Gray won’t appear at all).

Furthermore, Singer confirms that Kevin Bacon, who was announced as playing the film’s villain, will, as rumored, be playing Sebastian Shaw, the leader of the Hellfire Club. For those unfamiliar with the comic books, the club are a secret society, made up of influential members of society, with sinister plans, and Shaw, a mutant with the power to absorb kinetic energy and use it to increase his strength, was their leader (or at least, was most frequently the leader in the comics’ tortured continuity).

Emma Frost, the role being taken by January Jones of “Mad Men,” is also a member, although she goes on to become a key member of the X-Men. It’s a little unclear from Knowles’ report, but it seems like the villains will retain the 18th century costumes they’ve traditionally worn, something that perhaps makes more sense within a period setting anyway. (We’d heard reports that Bacon would be a CIA agent, and, while we’re told that the CIA do play a part in the plot, it seems that Oliver Platt, as ‘The Man in Black,’ is in that role)

Singer also reveals that we’ll see Xavier (the role that James McAvoy has taken) beginning as a young man at Oxford University, with hair and the ability to walk, removing (at least at the start of the film) the two most recognizable aspects of the character. Furthermore, the costumes will be closer to the comics than in Singer’s films, and director Matthew Vaughn is being inspired by 1960s Bond movies in terms of the technology, so we’d expect a kind of retro-chic feel to the production design. There’ll also be a Bond-esque globe-trotting feel, with the story taking place in England, the United States and the then USSR, with other countries also featuring in somewhere.

It sounds rather bold and ambitious, and certainly a risk which should see it standing apart from the legion of other superhero movies next summer (“Thor,” “Green Lantern” and the similarly period-themed “Captain America” all open within a few weeks of the film). We’re certainly looking forward to it more than we were yesterday, even if the still-in-flux nature of the script (which has changed hugely since Vaughn and co-writer Jane Goldman came on board) is a concern.

Filming kicks off on August 31st in the UK, with McAvoy, Jones, Bacon, Platt, Michael Fassbender, Caleb Landry, Nicholas Hoult, Lucas Till, Jennifer Lawrence, Edi Gathegi, Jason Flemyng, Rose Byrne, Zoe Kravitz, Bill Milner and Morgan Lily making up the extremely promising cast. If Vaughn can overcome the tonal uncertainty that’s marked most of his work so far, this could well be one of the better superhero entries of next year.