UPDATE: Well, there’s some controversy over the veracity of this image — MTV, among other sources, have pulled it; The Hollywood Reporter still has it up. MTV said 20th Century Fox asked for the image to be pulled because it wasn’t “authorized,” though “not authorized” doesn’t necessarily mean “fake,” as ComicsAlliance has dubbed it. After all, there are always tons of fan photoshops circulating before comic movies come out, and studios don’t usually ask for them to be pulled — though they’re usually obviously fake and not accepted as real from major media outlets for any period of time.
If it is fake, who faked it? I have a hard time believing MSN would make their own photoshop (combining images, maybe, but not a whole-scale slap heads on fake costumes job), though I could see an asleep-at-the-wheel editor unknowingly putting up a fake. But if so, why wouldn’t anyone have seen it until today? Hmm. A mystery! Stay tuned as we try to suss this out.
Original Story: It first appeared on MSN and subsequently mysteriously disappeared, but now, thanks to Bleeding Cool, here’s a look at the first cast photo of this summer’s mutant-filled prequel, X-Men: First Class. Pretty sure I’m right about this, so here we go, left-to-right: Magneto (Michael Fassbender), Moira MacTaggert (Rose Byrne), Emma Frost (January Jones), Azazel (Jason Flemyng), Beast (Nicholas Hoult), Havok (Lucas Till), not sure (perhaps Angel Salvadore, played by Zoë Kravitz?), Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), Professor Xavier (James McAvoy). The costumes definitely resemble the classic yellow and black/blue Silver Age X-Men outfits, and it looks like anyone concerned that January Jones might not embrace Emma Frost’s er, unique fashion sense (and wasn’t convinced by her outfit Sunday at the Golden Globes), can rest easy. Also, McAvoy’s Xavier still has his hair, so good on him. The Matthew Vaughn-directed movie is out June 3, 2011. Thoughts? Any guesses on the character I couldn’t identify? Let us know.
January 18th, 2011 at 2:26 pm
oh god no.
January 18th, 2011 at 2:34 pm
The mystery woman is Big Barda *fingers crossed*
January 18th, 2011 at 2:35 pm
Intercompany crossover? This movie continues to surprise!
January 18th, 2011 at 3:20 pm
McAvoy looks 12 years old in this picture, how is that even possible?
January Jones looks perfect.
January 18th, 2011 at 3:38 pm
IMDB confirms Angel Salvadore.
January 18th, 2011 at 3:43 pm
Mystery woman = Psylocke perhaps?
January 18th, 2011 at 3:43 pm
It’s interesting that most of them aren’t really students, or at least their comic book counterparts aren’t. Maybe 4 of the 9 of them are.
January 18th, 2011 at 4:01 pm
I haven’t been following the X-men movie news, but I thought First Class would revolve around young versions of the original X-men.
The only originals on this team are Beast (but he’s got his blue fur) and Charles.
Not trying to prematurely bad-mouth this, but I’m no longer interested.
January 18th, 2011 at 4:03 pm
I’m speechless this is already so bad.
January 18th, 2011 at 4:18 pm
I’m one of the few who is cautiously onboard with the Spidey reboot. This, however, I am not. They’re destroying any kind of X-Men continuity in the movie world. The original X-Men, decent. #2? Pretty good. #3? Well, let’s just say I wasn’t happy with Halle’s demand for more screen time, Rogue giving up her powers and the killing of Cyclops. Not to mention making Wolverine the “lead”. Which brings me to the last Wolverine movie where they managed to destroy even more continuity. This is just a mess.
And now this? There are too many separate Marvel universes out there in the movies. The original Spider-Man world, now the new one, the original X-men world, now this one, the new Wolverine is supposed to be a standalone movie not linked to the rest, then you have the first Hulk, the Fantastic 4, Blade, and finally the best we’ve got so far – the new Avengers world (which has already re-cast 2 characters as it is)
January 18th, 2011 at 4:20 pm
Uhhhh…. need a better pic I was worried we never see anything for this movie until it came out but then I didn’t even know it was being made until a couple weeks ago. Idk I also thought this was about cyclops jean and everyone else and I thought Kevin Bacon was in in as sinister
January 18th, 2011 at 4:25 pm
To Mavrik on movie continuity:
Just pretend it’s like the comics where continuity is revised for every few months, artists change mid-story arc, and stories (Batman) don’t even ship in the proper order.
In a way the movies are just staying true to the erratic history of the comics.
January 18th, 2011 at 4:33 pm
my fansite @ http://x-menfirstclass.blogspot.com/
January 18th, 2011 at 4:56 pm
Wait… this is a movie? Not made for TV?
Could have fooled me.
January 18th, 2011 at 4:59 pm
@bob You took the words right out of my mouth.
January 18th, 2011 at 5:04 pm
from what i’ve heard this isn’t a re-imagining remember this movie takes place in 1960 not present day, and nothings supposed to contradict the other movies
January 18th, 2011 at 5:17 pm
That whole lineup is just wrong.
January 18th, 2011 at 5:26 pm
Fox has indicated to MTV News that this is not an authorized image from the “X-Men: First Class” movie.
http://splashpage.mtv.com/2011/01/18/x-men-first-class-cast-image/
January 18th, 2011 at 6:18 pm
Yurk. Let’s hope it’s a fake.
January 18th, 2011 at 6:59 pm
meh
after seeing the crap that’s passing for Green Lantern, Thor and Captain America I’m not at all surprised this is going to suck on all kinds of new levels as well.
stop making these live action movies. They serve zero purpose and pretty much ignore their roots.
Here’s hoping all the movies mentioned bomb on Howard The Duck levels or worse!
January 18th, 2011 at 7:21 pm
can we just get a new x-men movie with right people
January 18th, 2011 at 7:36 pm
There goes comic-book movies…..X-men=epic,epic,eeeeepiccc FAIL…follwed by Spider-man Begins….LOL.
Reason these movies will fail?…FOX AND SONY pictures.
These two flicks need to go to Marvel studios asap!!
January 18th, 2011 at 7:49 pm
Damn, I thought this was just some fan-fic photo shop pic? I’ll wait till more is ‘accidentally leaked’ but this photo looks like it was a made for tv WB show..
January 18th, 2011 at 8:12 pm
I don’t think this is real either. It looks like one of the bad Photoshop manipulations.
January 18th, 2011 at 8:23 pm
Is a little diversity too much to ask for?
January 18th, 2011 at 8:25 pm
Well…um….let’s try to find the good. The yellow and black costumes…and…um…hmm…well MAYBE Emma’s costume since it’s true to the original but man there’s no getting past the fact that one of the WORST X-Men continuity messes and characters is being used here. Azazel? Really? Why? I don’t care what the reason is I find it deplorable they’d even drudge up that Z Lister. F’n joke.
Why they’re saddling Jennifer with the horrible character design of Mystique they gave Rebecca Romijin is beyond me. That enlarge skull with slicked back hair and scaly skin looks awful.
Are they saying Magneto WAS an X-Man? I dunno. I was hopeful given the inclusion of Vaughn but this pic is pretty lousy looking. It’s as if they bought the shark, set up the ramp and are gunning the engine prepping for the jump.
I hope Marvel gets the rights back ASAP
January 18th, 2011 at 8:28 pm
Leo, true, the movies will fail from a comic book fan’s perspective, or from someone that prefers these comic book movies to be intelligently written, acted, and presented. All Fox and Sony care about though is money, and they seem to be immensely succesful with the what they do with these movies. If it means dumbing them down (a must!), or changing aspects which made these comics great, or adding in lots of unneccesary elements that would appeal to the ADD crowd, then they will do it. Audiences are very different today. Young people particularly are pretty damn retarded also, and these are the types of movies that are catered towards them.
So the reality is, all these upcoming movies will be a HUGE HUGE win for Sony and Fox, because the masses will eat this stuff up and make these flicks box office hits! However, I will not go anywhere near these movies. Hell, I cancelled my cable last year and just try to avoid mainstream media in general, because it really is quite insulting and trashy these days. I still read a few comic books (mostly independants), watch few movies, but mostly, I just read some novels/books, and there are many good ones out there!
Have fun watching this MTV X-Men film! If I want a good X-Men story, I will go through my old collection and re-read some well written classics for free! By the way, Iron Man 2 was a trashy, retarded comedy movie, and it looks like Green Lantern and this Spider Man reboot will be more of the same.
January 18th, 2011 at 8:30 pm
Everyone else (exception January Jones) is poorly cast. epic flop. Why did you take this role Rose (moira Taggert)…why oh why mi amore?
January 18th, 2011 at 8:33 pm
So I’m still confused on this timeline. If it’s still in continuity of the other movies, I say that based on the fact you have the same type of look for Mystique, and Stewart and McKellan lend their voices for the teaser narration, or something to that extent…but…will this movie explain how Emma was younger in the Wolverine movie, which took place in the 70′s, compared to how old she is in the 60′s? Or how Beast has his blue fur in this movie, but in X2 he has a cameo and looks human? Image inducer? Or the fact that McAvoy is so young looking compared to Patrick Stewart’s Xavier when they are playing the same character in the same timeframe? I’m beyond lost at this point.
I will say this: I am digging the blue and yellow costumes, and Ms. Jones looks fabu, but at this point, I just wish they had just rebooted the franchise with the original 5.
January 18th, 2011 at 8:46 pm
@Lan
I don’t believe they ever said the diamond looking girl in Wolverine was actually Emma.
Also, the rumor is that Beast turns blue over the course of this movie. He had a cameo in X2?
When did Stewart play Xavier in the 60′s?
January 18th, 2011 at 8:54 pm
I for one thinks this looks pretty good. It’s not perfect but I’m cautiously optimistic about this movie. Vaughan did a great job with Kick-Ass and this has a good cast. Fassbender looks good as Magneto and January Jones as Emma Frost is going to be great.
January 18th, 2011 at 9:05 pm
@ Kyle
Hank McCoy can be see being interviewed on a tv in a bar.
and I could have sworn X3′s intro was in the late 60′s with Xavier and Erik meeting young Jean.
January 18th, 2011 at 9:07 pm
@kyle: also Yes, the diamond-skinned girl was never addressed as Emma Frost, I just assumed since her name was Emma and she had the exact same power…
January 19th, 2011 at 12:27 am
@Lan
I can’t imagine Jean was supposed to be anything more than 30 in X3, which would put her birthday no more than 1976, which would put that scene in the 80′s. Even if she were supposed to be 40 in X3, that scene would still be in the 70′s.
January 19th, 2011 at 1:11 am
I’m not so naive that I think all comic movies should follow continuity exactly, but in my opinion, messing with it on the scale that the X-Films has (especially x3, wolverine, and this teaser) is damaging to the comics. I work with kids and I’m always trying to get them into comics. They don’t want to pick up books like x-men because the backstory is nothing like what they think it is. It’s too confusing to younger audiences to juggle such different continuities. They know the movie backstory, and they don’t care to relearn everything they think they know in order to get into the comics. I know that Fox doesn’t give a damn how well the comics sell, but I do!
January 19th, 2011 at 1:19 am
Regardless of how badly they mess with mutant history, there is some promise to this as it’s own entity. The dude who is playing Magneto was awesome in Inglorious Basterds, and I’m genuinely excited to see what he does with Mags. Jones will be a pretty good white queen, and Bacon might just pull off Shaw, who I think is long over-due for an appearance onscreen. To everyone saying “give the rights back to marvel”: I agree, but that is never going to happen. Ever. You might as well give up the ghost. Fox knows a cash cow when it has one. Marvel/Disney would have to pay an obscene amount of cash to get them back.
January 19th, 2011 at 1:23 am
One more thing: Azazel sucks, but I assume he’s in the film to impregnate Mystique with Nightcrawler.
January 19th, 2011 at 1:58 am
shoot me, this looks more than stupid…
January 19th, 2011 at 2:28 am
Can’t anyone at least try to wait for the first trailer to come out before throwing a giant temper tantrum because it’s different from the comics.
January 19th, 2011 at 4:03 am
There’s a difference between “different from the comics” and “we wikipedia’d some stuff about the comics.”
This movie is in the latter category.
Who is this supposed to appeal to?
Certainly not to the average movie goer who would take one look at that picture, say “I don’t recognize ANY of these characters” and promptly lose interest because Wolverine isn’t involved.
January 19th, 2011 at 4:16 am
I pray that this is halfway decent… I have my concerns though. You take a character created by Grant Morrison as a student in 2001, a character retroactively created by Brubaker in 2004 (at least story wise he makes sense being in the movie), and A CHARACTER CREATED BY CHUCK AUSTEN!!! CHUCK AUSTEN!!! The most hated and derided creator on Uncanny X-Men of all time. Not only do you take a character he created (and hasn’t been seen since), but its a hated character from one of the worst storylines in the history of the book. They should have just said screw the movie continuity (even more so than they already have) and made this the original five x-men in a throwback story, but instead we now are going to have millions of people thinking THIS is the history of the X-Men.
Despite my rants, I am still excited, because of the actors involved. I have no clue how they were able to pull the talent they did with what looks to be another crap Fox Marvel film. They all must have seen something that I haven’t seen, so for that reason I am holding out hope.
Anybody notice how January Jones looked like she took one of Emma’s outfits from the comics, made it red and wore it to the Globes on Sunday? She looked HOT, and made me think she was perfectly cast.
January 19th, 2011 at 4:43 am
*obviously the actors have seen something I haven’t… the script…
January 19th, 2011 at 5:20 am
You know what’s the worst part ?
If Azzazel is a success in the movie (btw notice the irony of Fassbender being there , after playing another Azzazel in the serie Hex a while ago) , we’ll see a return of the douche in the comics
January 19th, 2011 at 6:32 am
Looks great! This movie adaptations are inspired by the Marvel Comics, not meaning they need to copy the continuity. There’s really some shake up wih this line-up, that i want to see what does it mean…
Those fundamentalist hard core fans look like they have a stick of continuity up their a**. It’s a movie, try to relax people…
January 19th, 2011 at 8:00 am
All indications are that this is going to suck, but Fox won’t care. In their minds, this doesn’t have to please the comics fanboys or even remotely resemble a good story. It just has to sell action figures and happy meals, and my guess is it will. I will continue to hold out hope for good Cap, Thor and Avengers films, but I now have zero interest in this one.
January 19th, 2011 at 8:43 am
Looks interesting !
I love the line-up, and find it really interesting to see Magneto and Xavier together, along with Kurt Wagner’s parents. (always liked Mystique… and Azazel too).
But where is good old Banshee ?
January 19th, 2011 at 8:45 am
They’ve lost me. This cast makes NO sense. What someone said about this getting so far away from comics it actually hurts the industry is spot on. X-Men continuity is already convoluted enough. Those saying “chill, it’s just a movie” have lost sight of just how hurtful this is.
January 19th, 2011 at 9:14 am
@Kyle, you’re right.
For some reason I don’t know why I thought sixties. Maybe the cars and decor.
January 19th, 2011 at 10:34 am
The comic book movie is going to be going bye-bye for awhile which may be a good thing since studios are no longer really taking them seriously now.
The Comic Book Movie:
http://codecrackx15.wordpress.com/2010/12/02/the-comic-book-movie/
January 19th, 2011 at 12:26 pm
@Cristopher
The movies are just commercials to sell toys? Interesting that they chose to give the X-Men identical black uniforms in the first three movies since that’s the exact opposite of what a company trying to sell toys would do. Remember after the first X-Men movie the X-Men started wearing more functional leather uniforms in the Morrison-era comics? The only reason they went back to the traditional superhero-ish costumes was because of a corporate mandate that the X-Men needed to wear the more colorful costumes in the comics because it was better FOR MERCHANDISING! If anything, it’s the comics that are toy commercials, not the films!
January 19th, 2011 at 12:40 pm
@Jason
I wish Marvel and DC would start taking their characters as seriously as the movie studios. Warner Brothers gave us “The Dark Knight” an impeccably-acted crime drama that challenges the audiences’ assumptions about morality and social decency. Meanwhile DC comics has Batman zipping around in his flying car, hanging out with a 10 year old superninja fighing magic bat demons and Mr. Toad from wind in the willows.
January 19th, 2011 at 1:00 pm
The comic book movie isn’t going anywhere, it’s a genre now. There’s a ton of bad romance films, cop films, horror films, etc. but they don’t stop making them. People really need to stop getting so worked up over these films. So far you’ve all seen one picture, which isn’t an official release, features none of the actors actually doing anything, and doesn’t tell anything about the story. Time to chill people, time to chill.
January 19th, 2011 at 4:20 pm
Wasn’t looking forward to this reboot (because that is what it will be, in the end). This image isn’t helping any.
January 19th, 2011 at 6:24 pm
Would it be too obvious to suggest that the mystery woman is Polaris?
January 19th, 2011 at 6:47 pm
Perhaps it’s Kitty Pryde?
January 19th, 2011 at 7:57 pm
I hope that at the end of the movie Emma Frost gets in a time machine to the future to save Cyclops from being killed by Phoenix so that they can do the nasty together instead of Emma being old enough to be Cyclops’ mom.
January 19th, 2011 at 8:33 pm
THIS MOVIE IS GONNA BURY THE X-MEN FRANCHISE FOR A GOOD LONG WHILE.
WAY TO GO 20TH CENTURY FOX!!!!!!
January 19th, 2011 at 8:33 pm
Maybe then Marvel can buy the rights back huh?!
January 19th, 2011 at 9:01 pm
I jus want to see January Jones in the movie…hopefully it’s renamed to X-men: No Class and it premiers on Cinemax at 2am…I would see that waaaaaay b4 this crap
January 19th, 2011 at 10:52 pm
This is a doctored image. The picture of James McAvoy is a promo pic from Children of Dune. I remember that image from the Sci-Fi website.
January 20th, 2011 at 12:03 am
Mystery girl seems to be Polaris. I’m seeing green hair.
January 20th, 2011 at 6:54 am
I am an outraged fan. I hate this movie and will never watch it. I rage on the Internet because I am a fan. I am so not into this project. I hate it, hate it, hate it. I am sure you are trying your best, but this is not it. You are bad people for not sticking to the continuity I love. These are not the founding members. How dare you? I am a fan. You have to listen to me. I hope the mystery woman is Big Barda, even though she is owned by the competition, but I am smarter than you and know how these things work. Use BIG BARDA OR ELSE I SCREAM. It has to be her. If it is not I want it to be an obscure character I like like Beak or Angel or Litterbug. I am so awesome. I am the biggest X-Men fan ever. I already posted Angel Salvador on IMDB and they approved it because like Wikipedia they know my knowledge is superior to theirs. IMDB and Wikipedia love me! I hate this movie so much. The Internet even told me which past movies connected to this franchise I need to hate. Thank you Internet. I am great. I am a fan. Endure my rage! And do as I told you, people at Marvel, who as far to my knowledge have complete control over this project.
P.S.: Maybe I’m wrong about the last part, but I’m pretty sure my knowledge about licensing properties to other companies for certain purposes is superior to yours. BTW Marvel has to use Wolverine in Avengers or else. Kneeeeel before my wisdom and giant-size man-thing!
January 20th, 2011 at 6:55 am
The Internetz just broke in half!
January 20th, 2011 at 11:07 am
If mystery girl is Polaris and Havok (aka Alex Summers) is also in this, I have a fear that they may try to make them Cyclops parents… please, no, please…
January 21st, 2011 at 7:36 am
@Bloodmage, well said. I’ve been reading this same “the comic movie will be dead soon” claim for years now. And it’s really getting old. For the most part, this claim is nothing more than wishful thinking on the part of whining fanboys who want to see comic movies go the way of the dinosaur. It has absolutely no basis in reality. Iron Man 2 and The Dark Knight were not only two of the highest grossing comic movies, but two of the highest grossing movies, period.
The upcoming comic movies won’t kill the prospect of future comic movies anymore than the Star Wars prequels killed sci-fi movies.
That being said, First Class does look like complete shit. Someone needs to inform Vaughn that showing a picture of Fassbender in what looks like an oversized foam helmet bought from a cheap Halloween store actually makes the film look even WORSE than the full cast image did. And if he really wanted to bring the X-Men movies back to something special, he shouldn’t have Z-list characters in place of the original X-Men.
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