News : McAvoy Is The Young Professor X In X-Men Origins

News : McAvoy Is The Young Professor X In X-Men Origins

The young Scot will star in Matthew Vaughn's reboot of the popular comic book franchise

Matthew Vaughn - director of the brilliant, independently produced comic-book adaptation of Kick-Ass - has signed up his fellow Brit James McAvoy to play the young Charles Xavier (also known as Professor X) in X-Men: First Class which is currently in pre-production over at Fox Studios.

First Class will tell the story of the beginnings of the saga, before the extant X-Men trilogy, and therefore before Charles Xavier and Eric Lensherr took on their alter-egos of Professor X and Magneto, before they became sworn enemies, when they were close friends who worked together with other mutants to protect the world from the greatest threat it had ever known.

Bryan Singer - director of the first movie will be producing and has conceived the story which should please fans ahead of this re-boot but what we all really want to know is whether McAvoy will be sporting a shiny shaved noggin a la Patrick Stewart who played Professor X in the trilogy.

Shooting kicks off in London this summer with the production eyeing up a June 3, 2011 US release.

Announcing X-Men Day on July 8

A new era for the X-Men begins on Thursday, July 8 with the release of X-MEN #1 and Marvel is proud to celebrate with the inaugural X-Men Day! In the first X-MEN #1 in almost 20 years, Marvel's mighty mutants enter the Heroic Age to face a deadly new threat, courtesy of fan favorite creators Victor Gischler and Paco Medina! Mark your calendars and be the first person on your block to score great X-Men Day commemorative items like the exclusive limited-edition cover print featuring Paco Medina's "We Are The X-Men" images, exclusive variants, mini-posters and more! Plus, fans can't miss the chance to add their own heroes to the X-Men lineup by sketching on the X-MEN#1 BLANK VARIANT!

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The Weekly Watcher: May 21, 2010

Alexa Mendez recaps the latest news on the continued success of "Iron Man 2," the new Super Hero Squad game, and much more!