Deadline.com are reporting that Oliver Platt has joined the cast of X-Men: First Class, the X-Men movie series spin-off that is set to hit screens on June 3, 2011. Platt is set to play the role of a non-mutant character called “The Man in Black”

Matthew Vaughn will direct the film. Thor writers Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz have been hired to re-write the script. Vaughn has also brought on frequent collaborator Jane Goldman to work on the script. Filming is set to begin on September 21st, 2010 in London.

The plot is as follows: “Before Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr took the names Professor X and Magneto, they were two young men discovering their powers for the first time. Before they were archenemies, they were 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.”

Regarding the film’s story, Vaughn said, “The story that Bryan Singer came up with is very, very smart … It’s very clever when you see how he has integrated the characters into the time period where the film is set. I’ll put it that way. I just don’t want to give it away. … It’s a very clever way of getting these characters involved in recent history, in recent world events.” He has also confirmed that it is a prequel to the first three movies.

The cast announced thus far includes James McAvoy as the young Professor X; Michael Fassbender as Erik Lensherr, who becomes Magneto; Kevin Bacon as Sebastian Shaw; Rose Byrne as Moira MacTaggert; Alice Eve as Emma Frost; Nicholas Hoult as Hank McCoy, also known as Beast; Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique; Caleb Landry Jones as Banshee; Lucas Till as Havok; Edi Gathegi as Darwin; and Jason Flemyng as Azazel. Broadway actor Benjamin Walker was previously cast as Beast, however he was dropped from the role. Josh Hutcherson has been rumored to be a contender for the role of Cyclops.

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