Young Professor X To Be Played By James McAvoy In ‘X-Men: First Class’

Just a quicky catch-up: X-Men: First Class is a comic book series that’s currently being adapted into a new movie.

It was at first going to be directed by the godfather of X-Men film, Bryan Singer, but he stepped away to do something else (but will still produce and will return for another mutant project in the future). We then found out that Kick-Ass and Stardust director Matthew Vaughn had been brought in to replace him, and all was well again. All that was left was to tell us who would be stepping into the younger iconic main roles that we’d become so familiar with over the past decade.

Now comes reports that the first star has been cast, and it’s a real doozy. James McAvoy, who’s best known from his roles in Wanted, Atonement, and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, has been cast in the role of Professor Xavier….or Professor X, to some preferences.

Professor X has been played by Patrick Stewart in the first three X-Men films, including the third one where he and co-star Ian McKellen were given makeovers for the scenes where they were to be a lot younger. In this movie, however, even that young is nowhere near young enough, and this is why McAvoy has been cast.

If this is any indication of future casting and the actual movie, I can tell you for me, this ignites a lot more interest in the title. I was pretty iffy on it before, but McAvoy is pretty fantastic and we could be looking at a great new X-Men movie taking form.

X-Men: First Class is expected to hit theaters June 3, 2011, though I’m still skeptical of this happening so quickly. If it does come out by then, prepare to hear more casting like this very, very soon.

Knowing now who they chose for Professor X, who do you want to see get the role of Magneto?