When the X-Men come storming back into theatres in the upcoming X-Men: First Class, the team of crime-fighting mutants will all be looking a little younger than they have in previous installments of the series.

That’s because Fox and Marvel Studios have made the decision to use the next film in the franchise to go back in time and explain the origins of the superhero clique (hence the title). For obvious reasons, this plan precludes 69 year-old Patrick Stewart from reprising the role of Professor X.

Which is why director Matthew Vaughn has hired young Scottish actor James McAvoy to star as a young Charles Xavier, according to a report from the Hollywood Reporter. The Atonement star will play the Professor as a young man unaware of what the fates have in store.

According to Fox, the new film will “chart the epic beginning of the X-Men saga. Before Charles Xavier and Eric Lensherr took the names Professor X and Magneto, they were two young men discovering their powers for the first time. Before they were archenemies, they were the closest of friends, working together, with other Mutants (some familiar, some new), to stop the greatest threat the world has ever known. In the process, a rift between them opened, which began the eternal war between Magneto’s Brotherhood and Professor X’s X-Men.”

Vaughn, who directed this spring’s superhero pic Kick-Ass, signed on to direct the First Class earlier this month, which means he won’t have a lot of time to prepare before shooting begins later this summer.

(Photo by PR Photos)

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