This summer's X-Men: First Class is the continuation of a superhero movie franchise that's been running for over a decade, of course. But let's face it, it's been 5 years since the last X-Men film, and 8 years since there was one that anybody actually wanted to watch, and it's a little hard to keep track of all of those mutants and their powers, especially when the roles have all been re-cast for the sake of the prequels coming out this summer. That's why Fox has made what might be the first actually smart move yet in marketing this film-- they've released three character featurettes to MTV, giving us in-depth introductions to the young mutants Banshee, Havok and Beast.

Check out all three of the featurette videos below not just to learn about these characters, but to see brand-new footage from the film of all the characters interacting with each other and getting instruction from Professor X (James McAvoy) and Magneto (Michael Fassbender). I especially like the Beast featurette for showing off Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique, as she develops what's apparently a fast bond with Nicholas Hoult's Beast. X-Men: First Class opens June 3, and despite the childish looking character posters and the seemingly haphazard trailer releases, I really do want to look forward to this movie. More tight, helpful featurettes like these are definitely helping the cause.