Well here’s an interesting twist. Bryan Singer has tweeted that Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart have joined X-Men: Days of Future Past, which is supposedly a sequel not to X-Men: The Last Stand, but X-Men: First Class. So how will they be used? There are a couple of possibilities I can think of off the top of my head. First, they’ll just be a couple of cameos used as a framing device, so that Professor X and Magneto are looking back at the events of the new movie. When these remembrances would occur in terms of the original trilogy is a bit fuzzy since Last Stand ends on the borderline of the status quo [spoilers] (Magneto loses his powers, but not really; Professor X dies, but not really).
Hit the jump for more speculation. Singer also tweeted that James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, and Nicholas Hoult will all return. No mention on First Class‘ other cast members. Filming on the upcoming sequel is set to begin early next year.
For those unfamiliar with X-Men comic book lore, “Days of Future Past” is an arc where the characters live in the dystopian future of 2013 (the horror!), Sentinels roam the Earth, and the mutant population is being decimated. Is it possible that Magneto and Professor X live in a dystopian future (they got better!) and the movie crosses between two time periods? It could be a more challenging and possibly more rewarding storytelling device than simply having two characters look back on their lives.
Either way, McKellen and Stewart are welcome additions to the cast so long as there are no CGI facelifts.
Here’s the official synopsis for Chris Claremont and John Byrne‘s X-Men: Days of Future Past:
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times: Relive the legendary first journey into the dystopian future of 2013 – where Sentinels stalk the Earth, and the X-Men are humanity’s only hope…until they die! Also featuring the first appearance of Alpha Flight, the return of the Wendigo, the history of the X-Men from Cyclops himself…and a demon for Christmas!? Collecting UNCANNY X-MEN (1963) #138-143 and X-MEN ANNUAL #4. [Amazon]
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Hell yeah.
It seems as though they are completely ignoring X-Men 1-3 and X-Men: Origins and opting to start a new (and hopefully sensical) continuity.
The movie is based on a plot line where the timeline changed. So reconciling their return with the original trilogy is only “fuzzy” in the sense that we don’t know the plot of this movie. It isn’t fuzzy because of the end of “Last Stand.”
I was under the impression that First Class ignored the continuity only from X-Men Origins: Wolverine and X-Men: The Last Stand. Not only is it a good idea to ignore those blights of the franchise, but First Class fills in the gaps from X-Men and X2.
Here’s hoping they time travel to a post X2 (or even post “The Wolverine”) and interact with their future selves. And giant Sentinels should be involved at one point.
I was under the impression that First Class ignored the continuity only from X-Men Origins: Wolverine and X-Men: The Last Stand. Not only is it a good idea to ignore those blights of the franchise, but First Class fills in the gaps from X-Men and X2.
Here\’s hoping they time travel to a post X2 (or even post \"The Wolverine\") and interact with their future selves. And giant Sentinels should be involved at one point.
Great! Now bring back James Marsden and give us a badass Cyclops!!!
Fox needs to release an official statement saying they “F’D Up by letting Brett Ratner helm X3″
X-men without Xavier and Magneto is not an X-men movie.
The guy who killed Pr Xavier and Cyclop in X-men 3 is a dumb.
bad sign. Bryan singer’s x-men movies suck
ahhh imbecile
Clearly.
Singer and Vaughn have both stated that in their xmen stories wolverine origins and xmen 3 are not recognized, the are not canon
Killing off Xavier and Cyclops happened so Halle “I can’t act” Berry could have the spotlight … she was refusing to comeback for X3 unless she got to be “the star”
Yep! well said.. This is the real truth about the whole X-MEN 3 mess
Killing off Xavier and Cyclops happened so Halle \"I can\’t act\" Berry could have the spotlight … she was refusing to comeback for X3 unless she got to be \"the star\"
Maybe they’ll pull a ‘Star Trek’ and have the new series in an alternate timeline. Seems like a smart way to deal with continuity issues.
They could just have Stewart and McKellan playing that chess game in Magneto’s glass prison, the scene from the second movie. Then Stewart says something like, “Hey Magneto, remember when that Sentinel in 2013 nearly stomped you the way I’m about to stomp your little glass knight with my bishop?”
Magneto frowns and says, “That’s not how I remember it,” as the picture gets all wavy and harp music plays and then – bam! – it’s the younger versions of themselves, running away from a Sentinel!
It’s classic Singer.
…And then they do a Wayne’s World type flashback and Patrick and Ian start waving there hands and go “Dodoo dodoot! Dodoo dodoot!”
i think i just woke up my whole neighbourhood when i let out an scream of happines over this
Something very similar to this happened to me…