The good news is that Fox is apparently intent on moving forward with a sequel to X-Men: First Class, which came in a respectable third place in last year's battle of Marvel superhero films. It may have been a better film than either Thor or Captain America, but Marvel's marketing might managed to lift those films above it in terms of total dollars. Still, Fox was apparently pleased with the result, as they've recently announced that both director Matthew Vaughn and producer Bryan Singer will return for a sequel, which one would assume would be arriving sometime in 2014 or so if they're just getting the band back together now.
THR said yesterday that the cast has likewise been locked into deals for the sequel, but that shouldn't be big news; I would assume that everyone signed a standard three-movie deal before they did First Class. That'll save them some money on the likes of Michael Fassbender and Jennifer Lawrence, both of whom are likely to start earning a lot more money over the next year or two.
The mildly bad news is that none of the scriptwriters from the first film are lined up to return. Despite some rough spots (the interactions between the teenagers really should've been better), the Magneto plotline was one of the more assured subplots that I've seen in any recent comic-book film, and it'd be a shame to see it lose momentum. Unfortunately, Fox says that Simon Kinberg, writer of X-Men: The Last Stand, undoubtedly the worst of the X-Men films, will be taking on the writing duties for the First Class sequel.
Now, to be fair, a lot of hands were involved in making The Last Stand a not-so-great movie, and Kinberg has done decent work before with his scripts for movies like Mr & Mrs. Smith. First Class also had a somewhat troubled conception when it came to the screenplay (with the Magneto storyline evolving out of a previous screenplay for X-Men Origins: Magneto), which eventually saw the studio heading to arbitration to decide who would be credited with what contributions. With the characters established, it's possible they just want an old hand around for the sequel, but still; the same could've been said about The Last Stand.
Still, more First Class is a good idea. Where do they go from here, though? Keep things in the 60's, or maybe jump forward a few years and have some crazy psychedelic 70's action? Try to get Hugh Jackman to play a larger role as Wolverine? What do you want to see?


























































