What hit in 2011: "Jayne Eyre," "X-Men: First Class," "A Dangerous Method," "Shame"

What's next: "Haywire," "Prometheus"

Lowdown: It's been building for a while now, and if you didn't see movies like zombie nazi horror film "Blood Creek" (also featuring another of our 2011 Breakout Stars, Henry Cavill) or the Cannes-awarded American-ignored "Hunger," then you haven't really seen the range that's been evident from this physically dynamic actor that finally caught fire with a bigger mainstream audience when he made young Magneto into the year's coolest anti-hero, killing Nazis with mutant powers and hanging out in sex clubs with Professor X (James McAvoy).  His Malcolm X stance makes perfect sense when you see the way Fassbender plays the damaged, angry Erik Lehnsherr, and audiences who also saw him in "Jane Eyre" or "Shame" or "A Dangerous Method" also got to see how well Fassbender plays someone walking on the edge of destruction.  Whether he's Oscar-nominated or not this year for his work as a sexually compulsive man standing at the lip of Hell, he's poised for a huge career as a new face for A-list directors, and besides… who else gets to get their ass kicked by Gina Carano and also play a robot for Ridley Scott next year?