X-Men: First Class could quite possibly the biggest cast of mutants in cinema history at this point. Every day we get a new cast member, and yesterday Deadline reported that Mad Men actress January Jones will be Emma Frost. We had heard rumors of Alice Eve taking the part, but apparently negotiations fell through with that. January Jones isn’t neccesarily a bad choice though, and could be fairly good in the role (although I personally think Betty Draper is the worst character on Mad Men).
As I said earlier, Jones joins the absolutely insanely large cast that features Zoe Kravitz as Angel (though not THAT Angel… apparently she’ll be playing Angel Salvador aka Tempest), Jason Flemyng as Azazel, Bill Milner as a young version of Magneto, Morgan Lily as a young version of Mystique, Michael Fassbender as the older Magneto, James McAvoy as Professor Xavier, Nicholas Hoult as Beast (who also made it into our Phonogram casting), Jennifer Lawrence as the older Mystique, Caleb Landry Jones as Banshee, Lucas Till as Havoc, Edi Gathegi as Darwin, Kevin Bacon as the unnamed villain (although it’s rumored to be Sebastian Shaw (which seems likely with January Jones as Emma Frost), Rose Byrne as Moira MacTaggert, and Oliver Platt is playing “The Man in Black”. PHEW. Trying say that all in one breath! It’s an incredibly large cast so far, and most notably doesn’t feature the X-Men. Well, aside from Xavier and Beast. But where is Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Iceman? We’ve got Havok, so where’s Cyclops! I mean, come on – Darwin and Azazel are in the movie, but no characters that the average public will know?
Of course, I did hear that the movie will mostly focus on the relationship between Magneto and Xavier before they take up their “superhero names”, so maybe no X-Men will appear in the film. It’s possible. Either way, this cast is getting pretty intense. Look for it in 2011 directed by Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass) with production beginning August 23 in London.
As an additional note, if you’re wondering “what the hell is up with this?”, take a look at ComicBookMovie.com where they have a very interesting Rorschach Rant about the film about just exactly what is (possibly maybe) going on with the film so far.
