Matthew Vaughn To Direct 'X-Men: First Class' Sequel

With this summer’s successful continuation of the X-Men franchise, Matthew Vaughn has been officially brought back as the director for the X-Men: First Class sequel.  Also returning is screenwriter Simon Kinberg and Bryan Singer as producer.  Many would’ve been surprised had there not been an announcement since the latest film, set in 1960s exploring the beginnings of the “X-Men” Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and Erik Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender), grossed more than $350 million worldwide.

Even though this was the lowest grossing X-Men movie, there’s been extreme goodwill towards the film since it garnered positive reviews from both critics, the media and moviegoers.  That’s all you need to continue on with a franchise (as is the case with Rise of the Planet of the Apes).  One of the big questions now is: “Where does the origin story go from here?”

One of those ideas that Vaughn is possibly going to work with is keeping the story set in the 60s and following through on the “re-imagining” of the Cuban Missile Crisis and then president John F. Kennedy.  This is Vaughn said to Indiewire:

"I've got some ideas for the opening for the next film. I thought it would be fun to open with the Kennedy Assassination, and we reveal that the magic bullet was controlled by Magneto… That would explain the physics of it, and we see that he's pissed off because Kennedy took all the credit for saving the world and mutants weren't even mentioned. And we could go from there, and I've got some fun ideas about what other mutants to bring in. I don't want to tempt fate, though. If the film's a hit, of course I'd be interested. I really enjoyed making it." 

The original cast is also expected to return for the sequel.