The nature of blogging is innate curiosity mixed with a badger’s knack for burrowing and so trafficking in minor (and occasionally major) spoilers becomes an occupational hazard you just have to live with. But even writers want some mystery to the films we eventually see and we must admit the cast and crew of “X-Men: First Class,” perhaps so eager to promote the film, have been robbing the picture of its allure by giving away seemingly every plot and character detail like it’s a fire sale.
So take that as a clear warning — if you want to remain surprised going into this summer’s comic tentpole you would best be advised to skip this article. We’ve parsed the latest batch of interviews by the talent involved and highlighted the most noteworthy portions so, if you’re dying of curiosity about what Matthew Vaughn and his team have cooked up for the film, read on. “X-Men: First Class” hits theaters on June 3rd.
1. Oliver Platt’s mysterious Man In Black character is no longer mysterious.
“The Man In Black runs a super secret division of the CIA devoted to investigating the application of mental telepathy and paranormal power in military defense. He has long been a laughing stock of the Agency because of this. His department is known as ‘Division X’,” Platt said. Glad to hear there’s still a sense of enigma to this character.
2. Oliver Platt plays a CIA agent that apparently has no idea what secrecy is about.
“When Charles and Mystique become ensnared with the Agency, the Man in Black diverts them to his division with a deft bureaucratic sleight of hand. Erik soon joins them and The X-Men flourish under MIB’s protection.”
3. In “X-Men: First Class” we will see why Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) no longer walks on his own accord.
“We see why he can no longer walk and why he is in a wheelchair,” McAvoy told IGN this week in a spoiler-heavy interview. “And hopefully we’ll find out why he lost his hair as well. In the comics he loses his hair when he sort of gains or discovers his powers. But obviously that is not the way they wanted to go in this case.”
4. Love triangles in the film are explored, however some love triangles that appear in the comics aren’t, but might be in future installments
“We explore the relationship of Moira and Charles but not with Banshee — at least not yet!” Rose Byrne who plays Moira MacTaggert said.
5. There’s another love triangle in the film and also Charles Xavier might be a date rapist according to McAvoy
“[The relationship in the film is] between me and Rose [Byrne]… it’s just me and Rose. There is a love triangle between me, Michael Fassbender and Jennifer Lawrence who plays Raven. It’s not a love triangle… basically she’s my assistant in this film, and obviously by the other films she is not my assistant anymore; she is very much not my assistant. Actually that’s quite good fun to see how that relationship disintegrates and why she ultimately goes over to the dark side as well. But yeah, it’s fun to inject a bit of romance into Charles’ life and not always to see him welcomed with it as well. He’s a little bit forlorn and he doesn’t really take ‘no’ for an answer.” OK then.
6. The movies deviate from the chronology of the comics at lot. For example Havoc, who is Cyclops’ brother in the comics, is not in “X-Men:First Class.” Moira MacTaggert is Scottish in the comics, but in the movie she’s American.
“No, Matthew Vaughn was adamant she be American — despite James McAvoy’s slight disappointment as he is Scottish,” Byrne said. “We did our best to maintain continuity with the other films. But as sometimes happens for the sake of telling the most compelling story possible, we made a few concessions,” executive producer and story creator Bryan Singer admitted.
7. James McAvoy reveals the entire arc of the movie for mutants.
“Anybody who has any kind of mutant power in them is leading a very secretive and sometimes messed up life. I don’t think there is the sense yet that they are appreciated as the underclass or feared yet, but we do get to that stage where we all start to realize that: OK, there is a group of us, and we go through our sort of period of fraternity time where we are all having a great time because we realize we are not alone and suddenly we are making connections for the first time in our lives. Then things get serious and ultimately we realize that it is not just going to be a case of, ‘We’ve got these great powers, aren’t we a great addition to the Planet Earth?’ There is a lot of fear attached to it and that ultimately sort of explains the split between Erik and Charles, because one is an optimistic and one is sort of a fatalist really, or a realist maybe you could argue.”
8. McAvoy entirely reveals the character arc, mentality and outlook of Michael Fassbender’s Magneto character.
“Erik definitely is not a force for bad. What he is doing is a good thing. That’s arguable. You can argue that killing people is never a good thing, but he’s killing some pretty bad people that did some terrible things to him. He is definitely a lot more sympathetic anyway, whether he’s doing bad things or good things. You know, the first time we see him as an adult he is chasing Nazis. You know why he’s doing it and I don’t think even if you are a pacifist, even if you don’t believe in carrying guns, you can understand and empathize with exactly what he’s going through. Where that takes him in the film is something that hopefully we would all fear because he takes quite an extreme approach. Whether he has been harboring that for the entire story or not or whether that is something that is growing from a particular event or particular moment in the film is something that I’m unclear on actually.”
9. There’s one character from the old comics that Singer wanted to include in these films, but hasn’t been able to. Does this mean he will feature in the inevitable sequels?
That character is the speedster character, Quiksilver.
10. Nicholas Hoult actually liked what Kelsey Grammer did in “X-Men: The Last Stand” and tried to model his performance after his to some degree.
“I thought Kelsey Grammer did a fantastic job when he portrayed Beast,” he said. “His charm and eloquence was something I wanted to try and emulate. However, in ‘First Class’ I play Hank younger before becoming a politician, when he is a scientist and still learning about himself and his abilities. So I didn’t want to try and just play a younger Kelsey but also bring something new to the role.”
11. No, really.
“In preparation for the role I watched lots of ‘Frasier‘ and listened to people who spoke with a similar accent to Kelsey, my dialect coach and I worked on creating something towards Kelsey’s dialect but without being an imitation. I also did lots of fitness training as being in the Beast costume and make up could be very tiring and tough physically.”
So, there you have it. Any other questions about the film? The cast has done a pretty good job of painting both the broad and smaller strokes the film will have but you know what, we’re still pretty pumped. And we’re also mostly curious to hear Nicholas Hoult’s Kelsey Grammer impression. [IGN/Facebook]