Matthew Vaughn On For First Class Sequel

If you’re a fan of the X-Men franchise and X-Men: First Class in particular, Deadline’s stealthy mention that Matthew Vaughn and some of the rest of the First Class team has signed back on to make a sequel stands as one of the biggest examples of burying the lead out there.

But it’s true: in the site’s report about 20th Century Fox production president Emma Watts signing a new multi-year deal to keep her at the company, there’s a line about the studio closing a contract with Vaughn to return and direct the sequel.

It’s not exactly a shock. First Class might not have knocked down any franchise box office records, but it won plenty of acclaim and did well enough that the studio began putting a sequel in motion. But it wasn’t definite that Vaughn would come back and make it. Now? He’s committed.

Simon Kinberg, Fox’s in-house superhero veteran who produced the first movie, is already on board to write the script. But we wouldn’t be surprised to see Vaughn (and possibly co-writer Jane Goldman, provided she’s not too busy) taking a pass before the film (which we're going to have to start calling X-Men: Second Class, even if that sounds bad) hits screens. And as to when that will be? No one can say for sure. The cast’s schedules, particularly a certain Mr Fassbender, have exploded since the first movie, though the Heat Vision blog is reporting that everyone will be back for the new pic. But there's stilll a chance it'll wait for the director; Vaughn himself has lots of projects in the development hopper. Let’s just hope he has a bit more scheduled time to make it this go-around…