X-Men: First Class has moved from the planning stage to the hiring stage . First actor to sign on to the prequel is James McAvoy. It is reported from Sci FI Wire and LA Times to name a few he will take on the role of a very young Professor X . In this prequel its reported that he and yet to be arch enemy Magneto(Erik Lehnsherr)  are working together to help and protect humanity from the threat to come with rouge mutants.  No word on who the other actors that will come to play others like Scot Summers and the beast but you can be assured it is a whole new crew. partly because of the story line and partly because of the age factor. Patrick Stewart who first played the professor is an excellent actor but he is getting to old for the part. Yea I know it is almost sacrilege to say that because of charter of the actor we are talking about but Hollywood is known to make moves like this i.e Star Trek’s Capt Kirk.  Anyway this move if successful will revitalize the franchise and you can bet to see at least 2 more after that.  Side note I will be real curious to see if this will be based on the comic series by the same name X- Men First Class ?

X-Men: First Class (2011) summary and development from Wikipededia
X-Men: First Class is intended to be about the young Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast and others who attended Xavier’s school with them. Zak Penn revealed he was offered to direct the spin-off in 2007, which he explained, “The original idea was to have me do a young X-Men spin-off, a spin-off of the young X-Men characters. But someone came up with a pretty interesting idea […] it was this guy who worked with me named Mike Chamoy, he worked a lot with me on X3. He came up with how to do a young X-Men movie which is not what you’d expect.” Penn later compared the idea to the comic book series X-Men: First Class,and in July 2008, Fox filed the title X-Men: First Class with Production Weekly. In May 2008, Josh Schwartz joined the project.Lauren Shuler Donner and Simon Kinberg will produce.
Bryan Singer later signed on to direct X-Men: First Class in December 2009, returning to the series that he started with X-Men and X2: X-Men United. Singer was quoted as saying, “This is the formative years of Xavier and Magneto, and the formation of the school and where their relationship took a wrong turn … [t]here is a romantic element, and some of the mutants from ‘X-Men’ will figure into the plot, though I don’t want to say which ones. There will be a lot of new mutants and a great villain.” Jamie Moss, the writer behind the 2008 Keanu Reeves movie Street Kings, has also come on board to pen a new screenplay for X-Men: First Class. In March 2010, Singer reiterated that the film will find its axis in the relationship between Professor X and Magneto and the point where their friendship soured, while also detailing the beginning of the school for mutants, with younger incarnations of some characters with new actors in roles of Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast, etc.When asked if Hugh Jackman might appear as Wolverine, Singer only shrugged. During March 2010, Fox revealed that Bryan Singer will be producing X-Men: First Class instead of directing. The studio wants the film to start production as soon as possible in order to release it in 2011, and Singer is unable to do it due to his commitment to a Jack the Giant-killer adaptation.Sources indicated that Matthew Vaughn was in negotiations to direct the film.In May 2010, 20th Century Fox confirmed that Vaughn will direct the film and announced the film will be released on June 3, 2011. 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.[35] According to THR’s Heat Vision James McAvoy is cast as the young Professor X in the film.