With less than a year before X-Men First Class hits the big screen, casting is moving full speed ahead. This movie needs to get filming soon, and they don’t have actors to film just yet!
So far Matthew Vaughn is directing, James McAvoy is young Charles Xavier, Michael Fassbender will be a young Magneto, Alice Eve is White Queen Emma Frost. There are more unsolved X’s here than an algebra class!
But they are figuring it out quick, and even letting it be known that Multiple Man Jamie Maddrox is on the roster. Eric Dane played him briefly in X3 Last Stand, but a younger actor will be required to fill his many shoes in First Class.
Comic Book Movie says Multiplying Man, also known as Jamie Madrox, is part of the ensemble, although it’s doubtful Eric Dane would reprise his role from X-Men: The Last Stand. Three actors are apparently up for the part. As you might expect, Multiplying Man can replicate himself. A cool trick, really, more handy than a lot of X-Men mutant powers.
But there’s still some trouble a-brewin’ in the casting office. The Daily Mail (by way of MovieWeb) says Benjamin Walker was in, now he’s out as Beast in First Class.
Multiple Man is a bit out of left field to introudce into First Class. As overlooked as this character is, I would dare to say that he could be the source of a feature of his own.
His ability sounds mundane. Oh, he can make a number of doubles of himself. That’s useful if you need to suddenly spawn your own baseball team, or you need help moving – but they are still duplcates of a perfectly normal man. But the interesting thing about his ability are the complications of making “dupes”, the different aspects of personality they take on, how independent they are (or are not) and when one dies how it emotionally affects him (each dupe shares a fragment of his soul).
There was an alternative future storyline with the character Bishop, where Maddrox was a despotic ruler, with a loyal army made up entirely of his duplicates.
The character is far more interesting than his simple power implies. I actually hope we do see him in First Class.
As for Beast, Ben Walker seemed a good fit, but I just hope he is replaced with someone equally as Frasier-ish. Kelsey Grammer was inspired for the role, and a younger version of that guy needs to be found.
