Ian McKellen as Magneto

Recently X-Men: First Class producer, Lauren Shuler Donner, spoke with Crave about the upcoming addition to the X-Men franchise. Among the nuggets she dropped for eager fan boys was a potentially crushing one: the Magneto solo movie is no more.

What we know so far about X-Men: First Class is it will be set in the 1960s, and Magneto will be played by thirty-three year old Michael Fassbender while Charles Xavier will be played by thirty-one year old James McAvoy. Donner explained that X-Men: First Class takes on much of Magneto’s origin using “Magneto history. Stuff from the Marvel/Magneto history”, thereby cooling any interest in a lone Magneto feature.

Donner laid out some more details on X-Men: First Class. Production begins this month in London, and with the influence of director Matthew Vaughn of Kick-Ass, special effects will rely more on practicals than CGI. Many fans are excited to see Vaughn‘s take on the franchise, especially after he was booted from directorial duties on X-Men: The Last Stand, and his recent comments to the Los Angeles Times declaring ” I’ve always wanted to do a big-budget superhero film and I think we’ve kind of crossed the Rubicon with superhero films.” The projected budget is said to be two to three times that of the independently produced Kick-Ass, and personally, I’m eager to see what Vaughn can do with that.

In other X-Men news: for better or for worse, a Wolverine sequel is in the works, and Donner notes it will follow the ” The Wolverine Saga, with Mariko, The Japanese Story, that miniseries.” The Deadpool movie is a go, and according to Donner, Ryan Reynolds is involved with shaping the script. Donner is hopeful Deadpool will go into production next year.

Vaughn may think comic book movies are on the decline, but Donner does not seem to share that view stating, ” I personally feel that the X-Men franchise is kind of like Marvel in that there’s a lot of characters, there are a lot of stories, 40 years of comics and that we can make multiple movies. It’s not like Spider-Man where there is a Spider-Man and you follow him. This is THE X-Men and there’s a world. In that world, we can tell many stories.”

Do you think comic book movies on their way out?

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