While it continues to rack up wildly positive reviews, Matthew Vaughn’s X-Men: First Class doesn’t hit theaters until Friday but already the talk has turned to sequels. Vaughn himself isn’t exactly secretive, as he recently revealed that he’d like to open the sequel with the JFK assassination. Now star James McAvoy has joined in on the sequel talk, speaking about a possible trilogy:

“Ideally you have a story arc that lasts three movies and at the end of the third it leaves you ready for the story in X-Men 1. It would be nice to explore things in two more films.”

Now a Matthew Vaughn-helmed period X-Men trilogy is something I can get behind. While he didn’t necessarily spill important plot details regarding a sequel, McAvoy talked quite a bit about what he’d like to see in a follow-up and what he thinks makes First Class work so well. Hit the jump to check out what he had to say. And don’t forget to check out Matt’s review of X-Men: First Class here.

In speaking with Hero Complex, McAvoy revealed what he had heard from some of the higher-ups regarding a sequel:

“I keep hearing bits and bobs from the different founts that there are or the different mouths that there are on this job. All I know is that if this one makes some money, they will definitely want to make another one. We’ve had pretty strong critical reaction thus far.”

While money is definitely the deciding factor in most studios greenlighting further films, McAvoy hopes it isn’t the only reason Fox decides to move forward:

“We all want to make money, but there was also a cool idea and a cool story. Everybody thought, ‘Oh great, there’s a prequel/reboot, just what we don’t need,’ but the idea was to explore that thing that fans were crying out for, those tiny moments in the other movies were you see Sir Patrick and Sir Ian [McKellen, who played Magneto] come together. Those moments were few and far between, but they were some of the most intriguing parts of those films. I think the idea of building a movie around that is what inspired this and, for me, validated doing this.”

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Image via 20th Century Fox

Furthermore, McAvoy has his own ideas about what a possible sequel would entail, and he and co-star Michael Fassbender will definitely be involved creatively if they have anything to say about it:

“I’ve lots of ideas. I know Michael and I are very much on the same page all the time and we’ll be weighing in to protect that relationship between the two characters. The next movie, if there is one, shouldn’t just start off with them being pals again, but I think it also shouldn’t be like the first movies only set in the 1960s. If we get another, let’s not just make Magneto the bad guy; of course he’s a bad-ass and of course he has a whole different ethos, but making a movie that is black-and-white is going to lose the thing that we have in this one.”

It’s definitely refreshing to see actors that are actually passionate about story and making a good film. It seems like all too often paychecks drive stars to become indifferent to lazy storytelling, so it’s nice to see real actors like McAvoy and Fassbender taking an active role in protecting the integrity of their characters.

X-Men: First Class stars Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Rose Byrne, January Jones, Oliver Platt, Kevin Bacon, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Lucas Till and Caleb Landry Jones. The film hits theaters Friday.