Showbizz411 has reported that Benjamin Walker has joined the cast of Matthew Vaughn’s X-Men: First Class as Hank McCoy, the bouncing blue-furred Beast — previously played by Kelsey Grammer in X-Men: The Last Stand.
Walker has gained critical acclaim as of late for his role in the play Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson.
It is not known at this time if the Beast seen in First Class will be the hairy ape/lion-like mutant seen in The Last Stand or if the X-Men prequel will focus on Beast before he evolved into the blue wookie and was just a brutish looking scientist.
Meanwhile, Entertainment Weekly is supporting claims that Micheal Fassbender (Inglourious Basterds) is in talks to join the cast as Erik Lensherr — the future Master of Magnetism, Magneto.
These casting reports come soon after earlier rumors that Amber Heard (Zombieland) was in talks to play a younger version of Rebecca Romijn’s Mystique character and that Rosamund Pike was in negotiations to join the cast as Moira McTaggert — previously played by Olivia Williams in Brett Ratner’s The Last Stand.
The Buzz: Early word about the script has been positive but it’ll be interesting to see if an X-Men film can be successful without the presence of everybody’s favorite “canuklehead”, Wolverine.
While the new movie will focus on Professor X and Magneto as they build a school for mutants, chances are high that Hugh Jackman will make some kind of cameo. It’ll be interesting to see what, if any, new mutants make an appearance in the movie.
I personally hope that Matthew Vaughn and company are able to make an X-Men movie that is just plain fun — something that shouldn’t be hard to do with a movie featuring such a cast of heroes and villains with such diverse power.
What do you hope to see in a new X-Men movie? Any particular villains you hope make an appearance. I guess it’s too much to ask for Apocalypse to show his blue-lipsticked mouth.
