With the early reviews of director Matthew Vaughn’s X-Men: First Class positively glowing, anticipation is growing even more intense for the Kick Ass director’s take on the franchise. Earlier today, Vaughn took part in a number of interviews with various publications, and contrary to most pre-release press he was actually surprisingly forthcoming. In addition to talking about First Class, Vaughn confirmed that he would definitely be willing to return for a sequel, and he even has an idea of what the opening scene would be:

“I thought it would be fun to open with the Kennedy Assassination, and we reveal that the magic bullet was controlled by Magneto.”

That’s definitely one way to open a superhero movie. But it’s conducive to the 1960’s setting for First Class and the threading of the X-Men with other historical figures/events. To check out a roundup of some of the best (spoiler-free) quotes from Vaughn’s interviews today, including further talk about a First Class sequel, the possibility of directing a Bond film, and his version of X-Men: The Last Stand that never got made, hit the jump.

During the interview with HitFix, Vaughn opened up about one of the biggest influences on First Class, the James Bond films:

“I watched all the early Bond movies again.  You Only Live Twice, I watched a couple of times.  I really wanted it to feel like a '60s Bond film, but with a little bit of reality it could be grounded in.  I wanted there to be just a hint of this world of the mutants coming through.  A mutant in this world having powers needed to be the equivalent of you or I sneezing, as normal as possible, at least until the humans start seeing it for the first time.”

Vaughn also elaborated on a First Class sequel, telling Movieweb that the follow-up would include just one new character:

"We will only have one more new character. I won't say who he...I won't say who he or she is! But we will only be bringing one more new character in. Because, I think, as Professor X is in a wheelchair, Magneto needs to have a nemesis he can fight with. Someone that will be his equal. I know who it is. It would be nice if I could say something, but I can't, mate!"

There was a pretty public scuffle over the writing credits on First Class, since the film came to fruition after many different versions, iterations and spin-offs were developed/scripted. Vaughn addressed this issue in speaking with Bleeding Cool and talked about the shape the script was in when he came on:

“Jane [Goldman] and I wrote the screenplay, threw everything out and started again. Sheldon Turner somehow managed to get a ‘Story By’ credit. He wrote a Magneto script that none of us have ever read. I didn’t even know that. I was like ‘Who the fuck is this guy?’ But Hollywood has got it's own way of dealing with things...The X-Men we used were already chosen by (X-Men/X2 director and First Class producer) Bryan [Singer] and Fox. In the draft they gave me all of the characters were in there."

Vaughn also spoke a bit about the third film in the X-Men franchise, X-Men: The Last Stand. He was poised to direct that installment before pulling out during pre-production over concerns that he wouldn’t have time to make the movie that he wanted to make:

“I storyboarded the whole bloody film, did the script. My X3 would have been 40 minutes longer. They didn’t let the emotions and the drama play in that film. It became wall-to-wall noise and drama. I would have let it breathe and far more dramatic elements to it.”

Finally, given the immense influence the early Bond films had on First Class, Vaughn talked about his desire to one day helm a Bond flick of his own:

“I sort of want the Brocollis (producers of the Bond films) to regret never hiring me. I was very keen to direct Bond. I don’t know if I am any more, to be blunt, now that I’ve done this. I really love Daniel [Craig], though you know, it might be interesting if they one day decide to cast Fassbender as Bond, then maybe I’ll go ‘Hey!’”

Overall, all signs point to X-Men: First Class being a huge hit. Early reactions are wildly positive, and Vaughn shows promise in taking the franchise in a wholly original and refreshing direction, with hopefully more Vaughn-helmed X-Men flicks to come. The film hits theaters June 3^rd and stars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, January Jones, Rose Byrne, Jennifer Lawrence, Oliver Platt, and Kevin Bacon.