It’s been a tension-filled few days since we’ve had any news to report on X-Men: First Class, so here are some more details courtesy of Ain’t It Cool’s Harry Knowles, who gathered the info during one of his many casual “what up?” phone calls from producer Bryan Singer. Most importantly, Singer clarified that the film is not a straight adaptation of the First Class comic series, but rather a “new beginning” set during the 1960s, when a hirsute and mobile Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) was still friends with Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto (Michael Fassbender). The film will follow the dissolution of that friendship, and reveal how Xavier ended up in his signature wheelchair.
As reported earlier, Kevin Bacon will play the film’s villain, Sebastian Shaw, who leads the Hellfire Club alongside January Jones’ Emma Frost; due to the chronology, characters like Jean Grey and Cyclops will not appear, hence their absence from recent casting notices. Also, the whole thing will have a very ’60s, James Bond-inspired aesthetic, while the costumes will hew much closer to the versions seen in the comics. So yeah, that’s the gist of it; click here to see the whole quasi-interview, or to find out what Harry Knowles is excited about.