Exclusive: Matthew Vaughn Talks His Plans for First Class Sequels

With Dark Phoenix opening next week, we chatted with Matthew Vaughn (promoting the Elton John biopic Rocketman) about his original plans for the X-Men: First Class sequels that never came to pass under his direction. How this wouldn’t contradict the Hugh Jackman cameo in First Class is something we didn’t get to address…

ComingSoon.net: If you could have split yourself into two people and still done the “Kingsman” movies but also finished out that “First Class” cycle what would you have done differently?

Matthew Vaughn: That’s one of the reasons I didn’t continue, because they didn’t listen to me. My plan was “First Class,” then second film was new young Wolverine in the 70’s to continue those characters, my version of the X-Men. So you’d really get to know all of them, and my finale was gonna be “Days of Future Past.” That was gonna be my number three where you bring them all… because what’s bigger than bringing in McKellen and Michael and Stewart and James and bringing them all together? When I finished the “Days of Future Past” script with it ready to go I looked at it and said, “I really think it would be fun to cast Tom Hardy or someone as the young Wolverine and then bring it all together at the end.” Fox read “Days of Future Past” and went “Oh, this is too good! We’re doing it now!” And I said, “Well what do you do next? Trust me you’ve got nowhere to go.” Then they did “Apocalypse” and it’s like… If you flip that ’round even it would have been better. Hollywood doesn’t understand pacing. Their executives are driving 100 miles-per-hour looking in the rear-view mirror and not understanding why they crash.

RELATED: New Dark Phoenix Clip Reveals a Dangerous Space Mission

In Dark Phoenix, the X-Men face their most formidable and powerful foe: one of their own, Jean Grey. During a rescue mission in space, Jean is nearly killed when she is hit by a mysterious cosmic force. Once she returns home, this force not only makes her infinitely more powerful but far more unstable. Wrestling with this entity inside her, Jean unleashes her powers in ways she can neither comprehend nor contain. With Jean spiraling out of control and hurting the ones she loves most, she begins to unravel the very fabric that holds the X-Men together. Now, with this family falling apart, they must find a way to unite — not only to save Jean’s soul — but to save our very planet from aliens who wish to weaponize this force and rule the galaxy.

Dark Phoenix will bring back much of the cast of the new films including Jennifer Lawrence (Mystique), Nicholas Hoult (Beast), Alexandra Shipp (Storm), Tye Sheridan (Cyclops), Kodi Smit-McPhee (Nightcrawler), Sophie Turner (Jean Grey), and Evan Peters (Quicksilver). Newcomer Jessica Chastain also joins the cast.

Simon Kinberg wrote and directed the film, marking his directorial debut. He will also produce alongside Lauren Shuler Donner and Hutch Parker.

The last installment to Fox’s long-running X-Men film franchise is scheduled to hit theaters on June 7.