X-Men appeared on the scene in 1961, the story-lines have always reflected their era, metaphors reflecting movements such as the civil rights struggles and xenophobia. X-Men: First Class continues this tradition, clearly embraces those themes through their characters. James McAvoy who plays Charles Xavier/ Professor X recently sat down with Herocomplex and talked shop. The Scottish actor openly discussed the potential of X-Men: First Class sequels as well as how they might effect the dynamics between the characters and the relationship between Professor X and Magneto. X-Men: First Class is currently in theaters. Hit the jump for the details.
On making Charles Xavier bald in possible sequels:
"It would be nice to explore things in two more films. In this one, Magneto has gone through his major metamorphosis; he kind of found himself. Charles is dealing with his new life and [issues that present themselves] in this movie. And we still are left with the big question: How does he lose his hair? In the comic books there’s a very clear and easy answer, but we didn’t go with that. In the comics it happened when he was very young and when his powers activated. We’ve obviously gone away from that. Now, obviously, we can’t start the next movie with him bald. Not only is that easy and cheap, we’d be passing up an opportunity for a cool story point. I don’t know what it is — we need to come up with something that justifies doing it. Maybe he got some dodgy Australian shampoo..."
On possible Sequels and what he has heard:
"I keep hearing bits and bobs from the different founts that there are or the different mouths that there are on this job. All I know is that if this one makes some money, they will definitely want to make another one. We’ve had pretty strong critical reaction thus far. I don’t know if they’d make it just on the back of that, if they didn’t make the kind of money they hope for. I don’t know, but I can’t see them making it just on that. I just hope that, if it happens, they make it because they found a story they like rather than making it just because there’s more money to be made. I’ve been lucky that, even though I’ve done a couple of bad or silly movies in the past, that’s the way they ended up; the studios made them because they were passionate about them. I’d hate to be in something that started right off as something cynical."
On how the relationship between Charles and Erik could progress:
"The next movie, if there is one, shouldn’t just start off with them being pals again, but I think it also shouldn’t be like the first movies only set in the 1960s. If we get another, let’s not just make Magneto the bad guy; of course he’s a bad-ass and of course he has a whole different ethos, but making a movie that is black-and-white is going to lose the thing that we have in this one…. In the comics, Magneto goes back and forth, there are times when they are friends, there are times when he’s running the school. In the first Fox movie, if you want to be a fanboy about it, Patrick Stewart says … that ‘Erik Lehnsherr helped me build Cerebro,’ which is like Professor X’s Death Star. And it is like the Death Star in the other movies, it’s forever being built or being destroyed."
Director Matthew Vaughn has mentioned a couple of ideas already for any sequels, ideas such as Magneto playing a part in the JFK assassination.
"I’ve lots of ideas. I know Michael and I are very much on the same page all the time and we’ll be weighing in to protect that relationship between the two characters. One of the things about this movie is: In all the others Magneto is your bad guy and Professor X and the X-Men are the good guys; in this one, it’s not like that. It’s much more sophisticated or complex, at least, and we need to come up with a way to do that moving forward. The next movie, if there is one, shouldn’t just start off with them being pals again, but I think it also shouldn’t be like the first movies only set in the 1960s. If we get another, let’s not just make Magneto the bad guy; of course he’s a bad-ass and of course he has a whole different ethos, but making a movie that is black-and-white is going to lose the thing that we have in this one…. In the comics, Magneto goes back and forth, there are times when they are friends, there are times when he’s running the school. In the first Fox movie, if you want to be a fanboy about it, Patrick Stewart says … that ‘Erik Lehnsherr helped me build Cerebro,’ which is like Professor X’s Death Star. And it is like the Death Star in the other movies, it’s forever being built or being destroyed."
