X-Men First Class released June 3, 2011

X-Men: First Class released June 3, 2011

The movie posters promise that “X-Men: First Class” will be released June 3, but on Tuesday cameras were still rolling on the Fox film’s set and director Matthew Vaughn, making his biggest major studio feature film to date, sounded like a man running out of time. “I’m at that stage where I feel like a boxer against the ropes,” the director said as his crew prepared for the next shot on a location set in Long Beach. “I’m just throwing punches and taking them as they come and making sure I don’t hit the canvas.”

“First Class” is being described as an origin story by the studio, and it is set in the 1960s, the same decade that artist Jack Kirby and writer Stan Lee introduced the uncanny X-Men into the cosmic melodrama of their expanding Marvel universe. McAvoy is taking on the role of young Charles Xavier, the leader of the X-Men, and Fassbender is Erik Lehnsherr, the man who will become the evil mastermind Magneto. McAvoy and Fassbender are taking over movie roles originated by Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen, respectively, two esteemed actors who are practically revered among sci-fi and fantasy fans for their respective work in the ”Star Trek” and”The Lord of the Rings“ universes. more news