X-Men First Class - Summary

X-Men: First Class is an upcoming 2011 American superhero film directed by Matthew Vaughn. It is based on the characters appearing in Marvel Comics and is the fifth installment of the X-Men film series and prequel to X-Men. X-Men: First Class is scheduled for release on June 1, 2011 in the UK and June 3 in the U.S.

The film is set in the 1960s and will focus on the relationship between Professor X and Magneto and the origin of their groups, the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Mutants. The film stars James McAvoy as Professor X and Michael Fassbender as Magneto. Other cast members include Kevin Bacon, January Jones, Rose Byrne, Jennifer Lawrence, Zoë Kravitz, and Lucas Till. The film was mostly shot in England and parts of the United States. Fox envisions this film as the first in a new trilogy.

The film is a prequel to the first three movies, set in 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis. X-Men: First Class parallels the history of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Civil Rights Movement. The villains of the film will be the Hellfire Club. The plot is as follows:

"X-MEN FIRST CLASS charts the epic beginning of the X-Men saga, and reveals a secret history of famous global events. Before mutants had revealed themselves to the world, and before Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr took the names Professor X and Magneto, they were two young men discovering their powers for the first time. Not archenemies, they were instead at first the closest of friends, working together with other Mutants (some familiar, some new), to prevent nuclear Armageddon. In the process, a grave rift between them opened, which began the eternal war between Magneto's Brotherhood and Professor X's X-Men."