Anyone who sat through last year’s X-Men:First Class can agree that the dynamic between Magneto (Michael Fassbender) and Professor Xavier (James McAvoy) found a way to top the special effects of a superhero film. Now that a sequel has been greenlit and Michael Vaughn has been confirmed to direct, we can speculate about what will happen in it!
No time to worry about what they’re going to call the thing (as Jeff Martin and I did in the latest episode of HeroHype), the sequel to X-Men:First Class is on the way, and in his latest interview with MTVNews (via Slashfilm), screenwriter Simon Kinberg talks about the sequel, as well as his plan to spotlight Michael Fassbender as Magneto a little more.
It’s not just the highlighting of Magneto that is stirring waves, but the idea that we might witness Magneto become a full-blown villain in the coming sequel.
“That’s the thing that was so cool about the first movie and we’d want to continue,” he said of Magneto’s origin story as portrayed in First Class. “Magneto becomes the villain ultimately of the franchise but he’s a much more complicated character as a young man. He’s someone you sympathize with, you care about, you root for. Even though might not necessarily agree with his methods, you understand his philosophy.”
Thankfully, he’s got the extremely talented Fassbender on board to help capture those many nuances. While he says the team is “still figuring out” whether Magneto will become a full-on baddie in the sequel, “I think the truth is ultimately that because Michael is such an interesting actor, he’ll never be full-on anything. He’ll have a villainous side and he’ll have a very sympathetic human side you’ll be able to relate but you’ll also be a little afraid of him. He becomes Magneto, he says ‘Call me Magneto’ at the end of the first movie.”
What do you think? Would you like to see Magneto’s journey to villain-dom? Were you hoping to see him distance himself from the evil people from his youth? Are you happy to hear that Fassbender will get more screen-time? Where does this leave Professor Xavier?