Back in early July, when Ben Walker passed on the role of Beast in “X-Men: First Class,” Roger Friedman reported “Look for a lot of different Taylor Lautners to assume the other roles. Fox, I’m told, even checked Lautner’s availability.” Turns out not only was his calendar being checked, but he was a top choice by producer Bryan Singer, “I wanted Taylor Lautner to do it, I really did,” he said. “We talked about it a lot, he is a friend, and I really wanted to make it work.” Can’t say we’re feeling the same sense of loss as Singer and we’re much happier that the role eventually went to Nicholas Hoult instead. And really, given that Marvel pays their players peanuts, they probably couldn’t afford Lautner anyway.
Last week, Kevin Bacon joined the cast of the film as the villain, but there was some mystery surrounding who exactly he will be playing. Shooting is scheduled for this fall in London, but Fox has been casting quickly, and possibly trying to throw people off the scent by circulating false rumors and auditioning actors for a multitude of parts that may or may not be in the finished film. Hitchcock, who once remarked that actors were “cattle,” would be proud.
The website Forces Of Geek, who have been all over the casting for this film, claims that the villain Bacon will be playing is Sebastian Shaw. In the comics, Shaw was the leader of a cultish group of aristocratic mutants known as the Hellfire Club who sought to penetrate the higher levels of the government through clandestine means. Shaw, who was apparently behind many of the government’s anti-mutant policies as a way to control the world’s mutant population, also has the ability to turn kinetic energy into pure strength, but that’s one of those interchangeable super powers of the Marvel universe, and it will probably be altered for the film. Though we imagine Shaw’s trademark mutton-chops will also be gone from the big screen incarnation, as there’s no way those would look good on Bacon.
The Hellfire Club was behind several villainous plots in the comics, and they often featured actual X-Men as brainwashed members of their inner circle (the White Queen specifically, played in this film by Alice Eve), so it was inevitable they’d figure into one of the movies. But since this is kind of an origin story centered around the early adventures of Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and Erik “Magneto” Lensherr (Michael Fassbender), we’re struggling to see how this fits into the comic continuity, though it certainly makes sense that Xavier and Magneto would be offered, and refuse, membership.
Anyhow, another day, another ‘X-men’ rumor. As you were.