It appears that X-Men: First Class is on the fast track to get made as casting confirmations are coming almost as fast as the casting rumors hit the wire.
Variety is reporting that Nicholas Hoult (A Single Man) has signed to play Hank McCoy, a.k.a. The Beast and Caleb Landry Jones has signed to play Sean Cassidy, a.k.a. Banshee. And Ain’t It Cool News is reporting the rumor that Aaron Johnson is “one hundred percent locked” to reteam with his Kick-Ass director Matthew Vaughn in the role of Scott Summers, a.k.a. Cyclops.
If this is true, they will join the previously cast James McAvoy (Professor Charles Xavier), Michael Fassbender (Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto), and Alice Eve (Emma Frost).
This would mark the second comic book adaptation for Johnson (after Kick-Ass), McAvoy (after Wanted) and Fassbender (after Jonah Hex).
Banshee is an Irish Mutant with the power to generate destructive force by using his scream. It is funny to note that the only American member of the cast (so far) is playing the only character from the United Kingdom, and the rest of the roles are played by actors from the U.K. (Landry Jones is from Texas, McAvoy is Scottish, Fassbender was raised in Ireland, and Hoult and Eve are British).
Continuity buffs are already trying to sort this cast out. The Beast is portrayed as being much older than Cyclops in X-Men: The Last Stand, yet they are essentially the same age here. Emma Frost appeared to be the same age as the rest of the mutants in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but Alice Eve is closer in age to McAvoy and Fassbender than she is the students. Let’s not mention the fact that McAvoy and Fassbender are, at most, only 13 years older than any of the students but in the other X-Men films the age different seems to be much greater.
