The cast for Marvel Studios’ X-Men: First Class is adding another new name. It’s being reported that director Matthew Vaughn has found his Beast, and that the character will be played by Benjamin Walker.

Walker is a relatively unknown, but has been in films like Kinsey, where he played the young title character portrayed for the most part by Liam Neeson, as well as Clint Eastwood’s World War II drama, Flags of Our Fathers. He’s also making a lot of waves in a theatrical production titled Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson by the Public Theater.

One obstacle with this movie is that many do worry that these new, younger actors taking on the roles of mutants that have already been popularly-depicted in X-Men and X2 won’t be able to meet or even raise the bar. There is fair concern here, but hopefully this is a non-existent issue. When it comes to Beast we only saw him in X-Men: The Last Stand played by Kelsey Grammar, but with many despising that movie, the character is wide open for Walker to step in and make it his own.

Walker joins James McAvoy on the cast, who will be playing a younger Professor X. No other castings have been made yet, though there are rumors that the role of Magneto is 300 and Inglourious Basterds star Michael Fassbender’s if he wants it. If he turns it down, it will likely to be a villain in the Spider-Man reboot being developed.

[Source: Showbiz 411]