James McAvoy will play the younger Charles Xavier in X-Men First Class. Patrick Stewart played older Xavier in the first two X-Men films.

First Class will be directed by Matthew Vaughn.

Charles Xavier as a young man discovers his powers along with Erik Lehnsherr. Before they took the names Professor X and Magneto, the two were close friends. They worked together with other Mutants to stop a threat to the world, but in the process, a rift opened between them, leading to the war between Magneto’s Brotherhood and Professor X’s X-Men.

The movie begins production this summer and is scheduled for a June 3, 2011 release.