While X-Men: First Class features a large ensemble cast, at it's core, it's all about one man: Charles Xavier. It serves as a flashback to a simpler time, where Xavier's dream was still in its infancy and mutantkind hadn't experienced the horrors that they were destined to conquer. Charles and the man who would become Magneto were still close friends and colleagues, and the world wasn't as skeptical about the mutant "threat."
But questions remain: what will Professor X's role in the move be, and can James McAvoy do justice to the role Patrick Stewart pioneered?
== TEASER ==Professor Xavier will be one of the main focuses of X-Men: First Class, which is to be assumed. I mean, the film is about the team he started, so why wouldn't he be?
However, what I want to see out of Charles is something we don't often see in the comics: his humanity. I want to see an insecure Charles. I want to see a contemplative Charles. I want this flashback movie to actually do its job and give us a picture of a man who hasn't figured out everything that makes him an extraordinary person in the present day.
And of course, I want him to have a dynamic with Michael Fassbender's Magneto. I want to see the friendship that's always touched on in the comics. I want to see them have a plan for the way mutantkind should go, and a divergence that will ultimately drive them apart. I really don't want to see bickering from start to finish: they were friends at one point - give us a realistic portrayal of that.
I'm also interested to see how he'll interact with his students. The Professor X we know has had decades of experience dealing with teenagers and their bull; however, in First Class, we will hopefully not only have a vulnerability within himself, but a one with the people around him.
If Charles can't be a competent leader in the field while dealing with the insecurities of his students, how can be expected to become a great mutant leader in the future?
I'm also quite curious to see how he interacts with Moira MacTaggert, romantically. Both characters eventually become key figures in mutantkind, so I'm almost as curious to Moira in the past as I am Charles. While Chuck is a little old to be dealing with teen angst within himself, it'll be interesting to see how he handles love, raising students, his best friend betraying him and the implied military problems the cast is to face.
X-Men: First Class will fail if they don't make the film focus on Charles as a person, instead of his usual role as a figure of authority. This is their chance to humanize Xavier (forgive the pun) and develop him as someone we, the audience, can really sympathize with.
If they can do that, the team behind X-Men: First Class will succeed at adding something crucial to the X-Men universe as a whole: the ability to look at people who have extraordinary powers and bring them down to a level that's common with us, the viewer. I'll be looking forward to see if they can pull it off.
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Matt Demers is a Toronto columnist and is a staff writer for ComicVine. You can follow him on Twitter or Tumblr; send him messages! He loves it!
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