Matthew Vaughn went above and beyond the call of duty to get Kick-Ass made when studios wanted nothing to do with such controversial content. After proving how appealing it was to younger audiences, the director’s passion and drive is paying off with a big new gig.

20th Century Fox has tapped Vaughn to direct X-Men: First Class, the project that originally had Bryan Singer attached to return to the world of mutants. The movie will be based on the Marvel comic book series of the same name, which takes place in the earlier years of Professor Xavier’s school for the gifted and when some of your favorite mutants were first coming to be.

Fans of the X-Men universe were very saddened when Bryan Singer left to do Superman, leaving Brett Ratner to take the wheel for X-Men: The Last Stand (which was hated but still made the most money of the trio). Then came X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which also wasn’t very well-received, but still made a massive amount of money at the box office. Funny how all that works, eh?

Singer and producer Lauren Shuler Donner recently spoke to Hero Complex while there to talk about the 10-year anniversary of X-Men in 2000. The discussion, however, resulted in many interesting hints at the future of the franchise, including X-Men 4 and Wolverine 2!

Over the past year or so, there have been a couple of occasions when X-Men and X2 director Bryan Singer spoke about an urging desire to return to the world of comic book mutants. The only project that we knew was in the workings was for something called X-Men: First Class; but aside from that, there was only the chance and hopes that Singer would return in a blaze of glory to direct X-Men 4. While speaking to MySpace recently Singer reaffirmed that his next film would be Jack the Giant Killer, but went on to drop the bomb that he had officially signed on and would indeed be directing X-Men: First Class.

X-Men: First Class is based on a comic series that follows Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast, Angel, and Iceman as the first group of X-Men a but who knows which of these will be used and interchanged with others. For example, Beast wasn’t in the first or second films that were made, so it will be interesting to see how they make it all fit together and make sense. For all we know, they may just wipe the slate and re-imagine things; that is the cool thing these days, kids.

Back in June, Bryan Singer did an interview where he was asked about the X-Men franchise and whether he would ever return (Read: Is Bryan Singer Itching To Do More “˜X-Men’ Adventures?). He revealed that the four hours that it takes us to watch X-Men and X2: X-Men United took six years of his life, and so he is “eternally intertwined” with the franchise and would love to return.

While at the Pusan International Film Festival recently, Singer once again spoke about the possibility of retaking the helm for X-Men 4. He confirmed the previous interview statement that he would like to get back into that universe, and that he has actually been talking to 20th Century Fox about this return. Singer spoke about how he loves Hugh Jackman and the rest of the cast, and especially how much he loves the ability to tackle real-world issues through the fun of science fiction and fantasy movies such as the X-Men films.