X-Men’s ever-growing ‘First Class’ cast adds January Jones

(AFP PHOTO/Robyn BECK)

Director Matthew Vaughn ( Kick-Ass) is filling out the cast of X-Men: First Class, with announcements rolling out and this week Mad Men‘s January Jones ( The Boat that Rocked) has been signed on to play Emma Frost, aka the White Queen after Alice Eve ( Sex and the City 2) dropped out of the production.

Also added this week is Oliver Platt ( 2012, Letters to Juliet) as The Man in Black, a non-mutant character, Rose Byrne ( Get Him to the Greek) as Moira MacTaggart, an authority on genetic mutation, and playing Azazel, the demonic mutant father of Kurt "Nightcrawler" Wagner, is Jason Flemyng ( Clash of the Titans) who has worked on all Vaughn films including Kick-Ass.

These actors join Michael Fassbender ( Inglourious Basterds) as Magneto, James McAvoy ( Atonement) as the Professor, and Kevin Bacon ( Frost/Nixon) as villain Sebastian Shaw, along with the characters Banshee, Havok, Beast, Mystique, and Darwin.

This prequel to the Marvel Comics adaptation visits Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr before they became Professor X and Magneto, when they were young men discovering their powers prior to becoming archenemies with Magneto's Brotherhood battling Professor X's X-Men.

The film starts shooting in England in September and will hit theaters June 2, 2011.

RC