Michael Fassbender: maybe your new (young) Magneto?

We’ve already got James McAvoy (WANTED) as the young mutant idealist Charles Xavier in Matthew Vaughn’s X-MEN: FIRST CLASS. But who will be his friend-then-foe Erik Lehnsherr, a.k.a., Magneto?

According to Showbiz411, Michael Fassbender is being pursued for the part of the powerful magnetism manipulator. The Irish-German actor is best known for his part in the INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS’ messy plan, as well as 300’s Spartan warrior Stelios (“Then we will fight in the shade”).

But Fassbender (who also appears as a villain henchman in JONAH HEX) might have a comic conundrum — he’s reportedly also being chased to play the baddie in Sony’s SPIDER-MAN reboot, presumably as the new/different/non-Dafoe Green Goblin.

Fox’s X-MEN prequel takes place before the days of leather-clad X-heroes we know from Bryan Singer’s movies, and focuses on Xavier and Erik’s relationship: Before they were archenemies, they were the 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.