Michael Fassbender is a man in serious demand right now. And no surprise, given his excellent work in such films as Inglourious Basterds and Hunger. What his CV has lacked since 300, however, is an iconic comic book role (his part in the upcoming **Jonah Hex **doesn’t count). But it looks like he’s about to change all that, since he's rumoured to have two big properties aiming to catch his eye like flirty teenage girls at the school disco: X-Men: First Class and the new Spider-Man reboot.
It’s the sort of dilemma any actor would kill to find themselves in: big-name properties with successful directors trying to get them to commit to a role offering broad exposure.
On the one hand, there is Matthew Vaughn and First Class, which, according to Showbiz 411, is angling to get Fassbender to play the young Erik Lensherr, the future Magneto. That one would put him alongside the already-cast James McAvoy as Professor Charles Xavier.
The X-Men prequel is in the middle of gathering up its mutant students, with Vaughn’s Kick-Ass star Aaron Johnson already touted as a likely star (Scott Summers, anyone?) and Harry Potter’s Frank Dillane another possibility.
Fassbender’s a solid choice for the role as Lensherr, and we’d be interested to see what he could bring to the part. Should he require any voice coaching to get those Ian McKellen tones down pat, Empire is only too happy to rent out our own Gandalf/Magneto voice expert Chris Hewitt for a pricey sum (that's payable to us; the talent works for a case of Coca Cola).
And then there’s Sony’s new take on Spider-Man, with (500) Days Of Summer’s Marc Webb directing. While the film is still locking in a Peter Parker (current web chatter has Jamie Bell the front-runner in that particular horse race), Fassbender is apparently being courted to play the unspecified villain. Could the studio be attempting a second stab at the Green Goblin? We’ll find out soon enough.
So, any preference, folks? Which Marvel story should he go for?