X-Men: First Class News

The X-Men universe is quickly expanding, with an untold amount of comics, animated television series, and a feature film franchise that's spawning spin-offs left and right. So what's next for everyone's favorite mutants?

X-Men producer Lauren Schuler-Donner recently spoke to Empire magazine about what Fox and Marvel have in the works. Here are a few juicy tidbits:

On Wolverine 2: "It's actually the story we wanted to use for the first Wolverine film, but [Fox head honcho] Tom Rothman preferred to set the character up with an origin story first. What’s cool about this part of the saga is that Wolverine will be fighting in a different style to what we’ve seen before. Mariko’s father has this stick-like weapon, so Wolverine will have to fight against that. There’ll be samurai, ninja, katana blades, different forms of martial arts — mano-a-mano, extreme fighting."

On X-Men: First Class: "We want it to be like the recent, darker Potters. It should not be a kiddie movie: we’re in the X-Men world so you can’t suddenly change the tone. The First Class comics are really fun — they’re funnier than any other comics I’ve read. Basically in each one the kids are fighting strange villains, sometimes it’s aliens, sometimes it’s monsters. I want to get a flavour of that world."

On Deadpool: "I don’t see it as a problem that Ryan [Reynolds] is also playing Green Lantern. I mean, look at Harrison Ford – he was in Stars Wars and Indiana Jones at the same time and everyone was fine with that. Green Lantern could not be more different to Wade Wilson. Green Lantern is a guy who finds a ring and is thrust into this world, much like Spider-Man. Wade Wilson is a bad ass, a wise-cracking mercenary, who will go out and kill anyone for money. But the thing about him is that, underneath it all, and he wouldn’t want you to know this, sometimes he’s not such a bad ass after all."

One wonders where Bryan Singer might fit into all of this, as he recently stated that he'd like to return to the directing chair for another X-Men movie.

To read the full interview, head over to empireonline.com!

As previously reported, Josh Schwartz had been hired to write a screenplay for X-Men: First Class.

The movie will focus on teenage characters attending the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. However, it's now been confirmed that the project is not a spin-off, but a full on X-Men prequel.

X-Men producer Lauren Shuler Donner said this week that it will center around “the first class of Xavier’s school, way back when.”

We can't wait. In related franchise news: X-Men Origins: Wolverine comes out next month.

How many movies can they turn the X-Men franchise into?!?

A Wolverine film is already on the way, while a Magneto-based flick is all but assured.

Now, it's been announced that Josh Schwartz will write X-Men: First Class. The creator of The OC and Chuck will focus on the younger characters introduced in the previous films, teenagers with powers taught at the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning.

No release date has been announced for X-Men: First Class.

We recently treated you to a sneak preview of the X-Men Origins: Wolverine trailer courtesy of Comic-Con.

However, that may not be the only X-Men prequel in the works. In addition to the rumored Magneto movie, Production Weekly reports that X-Men: First Class is also coming our way.

First Class was a Marvel comic mini-series about the first class of X-Men which included Cyclops, Iceman, Beast, Marvel Girl and Angel.

However, since the movie series had Iceman as a student, we're guessing a slightly different lineup. Either way, we'll take all the X-Men movies we can get!