Oliver Platt Joins X-MEN: FIRST CLASS; Filming Set to Begin in Three Weeks

Last night came the news that Rose Byrne and Jason Flemyng had been cast in Matthew Vaughn’s X-Men: First Class.  This afternoon we have another piece of casting news to bring you.  Deadline reports that Oliver Platt will be playing the mysteriously-named but not-mutant-powered “The Man in Black”.  Nothing more is currently known about the role.

We should be expecting more First Class casting news in the coming days as screenwriter Jane Goldman told Movie Con this weekend [via CBM] that they plan to begin shooting in three weeks.  Keep in mind that major roles expected to be in the film—Cyclops, Jean Grey—have yet to be cast.  Hit the jump to see where casting on the film currently stands.  X-Men: First Class is slated to open on June 3, 2011.

Here’s how the casting currently stacks up:

• James McAvoy as Professor Charles Xavier
• Michael Fassbender as Magneto
• Nicholas Hoult as Beast
• Alice Eve as Emma Frost
• Caleb Landry Jones as Banshee
• Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique
• Kevin Bacon as the villain (rumored to be Sebastian Shaw)
• Edi Gathegi as Darwin
• Jason Flemyng as Azazel
• Rose Byrne as Moira MacTaggert

And as for rumored casting:

• Lucas Till as Havok

The characters “Multiple Man” and “Willow” are also rumored to be in the film. If there are misdirects among the roles, I would believe these would fall into that category. It’s either that or (hopefully) they’re background characters like Kitty Pride/Shadowcat in the first two X-Men movies.

And here’s the official plot synopsis:

X-MEN: FIRST CLASS, following the classic Marvel mythology, charts the epic beginning of the X-Men saga.  Before Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr took the names Professor X and Magneto, they were two young men discovering their powers for the first time. Before they were archenemies, they were closest of friends, working together, with other Mutants (some familiar, some new), to stop the greatest threat the world has ever known. In the process, a rift between them opened, which began the eternal war between Magneto’s Brotherhood and Professor X’s X-Men.

—