Screenwriter Simon Kinberg is out promoting This Means War, which means journos have been able to ask him about his next job, scripting the sequel to X-Men: First Class. Kinberg has hinted that the mutant follow-up will focus on Magneto’s journey to being a villain.

He told MTV, “I’m a huge X-Men fan. I grew up loving the comic books and it was really exciting to be able to do the origin story of Xavier and Magneto, and getting those two actors, James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender, were really amazing. So being able to explore those characters with actors of that quality will be exciting a second time around, and doing some things unexpected with those characters, which is the plan.

“That’s what was so cool about the first one and what we want to continue. Magneto becomes the villain ultimately of the franchise but he’s a much more complicated character as a young man. He’s someone you sympathize with, you care about and you root for even though you might not necessarily agree with his methods, you understand his philosophy.

“The truth is ultimately that because Michael is such an interesting actor, he’ll never be full-on anything. He’ll have a villainous side and he’ll have a sympathetic human side you’ll be able to relate but you’ll also be afraid of him. He becomes Magneto, he says ‘Call me Magneto’ at the end of the first movie.”

It certainly sounds like it’s the metal-controlling mutant Kinberg is most interested in, which isn’t surprising, as while Professor X has his school and a relatively settled existence, there’s a whole world of possibilities for Magneto, who even in his Ian McKellen form was always one of the most interesting supervillains.