James McAvoy Was Once Relieved That ‘X-Men: First Class’ Turned out to Be Good
The X-Men franchise once went through a slight reboot that was led by actors like James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender. But before its release McAvoy admitted that he was concerned with how the final product would do in theaters.
How Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy approached their X-Men characters
X-Men: First Class acted as a prequel and a light reboot of Bryan Singer’s and Brett Ratner’s X-Men trilogy. The film was directed by Matthew Vaughn and starred Fassbender and McAvoy portraying Magneto and Professor Charles Xavier respectively. But prior to their casting, the two characters were associated with Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart for many years.
Audiences were used to seeing McKellen’s Magneto and Stewart’s Charles Xavier clash for three movies. With Fassbender and McAvoy inheriting the characters, they both briefly wondered if they should try to imitate McKellen and Stewart. It was an idea that didn’t last very long.
“Obviously Sir Ian McKellen has done such a great job, and I was aware that fans of the X-Men comic book were very pleased with what he did. Initially I thought to myself, should I study a young Ian McKellen, study his voice and physicality. So I talked to Matthew about it, the first day or second day, and he wasn’t so keen on the idea. He wanted me to use my own voice and take it from there,” Fassbender once said in an interview with Collider.
Fassbender, Vaughn, and McAvoy thought it might have been best to start from scratch with the two characters.
“We wiped the slate clean of that idea and I really delved into the comic books. There’s so much material there, and I was spoiled in terms of biography and putting together a complicated, well-rounded character,” Fassbender added.
James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender were worried that ‘X-Men: First Class’ might be a nightmare
In McAvoy’s mind, the success of First Class was far from a sure thing. The Split actor confided that movies like First Class are particularly challenging to do well. Because of this, McAvoy was uncertain of the film’s future, and how he personally might be affected if the movie potentially failed. But fortunately for McAvoy, the movie met and perhaps even exceeded expectations.
“We were worried man because sometimes these things are a nightmare to make and it’s well documented so there’s no point in hiding out, but it turned out really good,” McAvoy once told WENN (via Contact Music). “I think we always thought it could either be really different and really brilliant or really bad and really different.”
When McAvoy saw how the film turned out, he called Fassbender to tell him the good news.
“I phoned Michael within a half hour [of seeing it] saying, ‘Dude, you’ve got to see this movie really quick because you’re gonna be relieved. You’re gonna be able to go to the toilet again properly,'” McAvoy recalled.
James McAvoy feels he’s done playing Professor X
McAvoy once shared that he believed his days of being Professor X are over. The last film he portrayed the character in was X-Men Dark Phoenix. Since then, Disney acquired the rights to produce movies about the X-Men and all mutants after buying Fox studios. With mutants all but set to appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe eventually, it’s been highly speculated that certain X-Men roles will be re-cast.
Whether or not that’s the case, McAvoy feels that he won’t be returning to the character.
“I feel like I got to explore, not everything I wanted to explore, because there’s always more, surely, but I got to explore a ton of Professor X, and I feel quite satisfied with what I got out of him as a performer,” he once said in a fairly recent Collider interview.
However, McAvoy clarified that he wouldn’t exactly turn down the opportunity to play Charles Xavier again.
“It’s not to say that you don’t ever want to, you never want to come back, and you never want to do it again, and all that kind of stuff. You never say never, as I believe James Bond once said. But I’m not chomping at the bit. I’m not going to be gutted and desperately sad if it never happens again,” he added.
