We're not even a month through 2013 yet, but Bryan Singer's X-Men: Days of Future Past is probably one of the most-anticipated films of 2014.  He's been wielding his Twitter account to release casting news, and a couple days ago he revealed that Anna Paquin, Ellen Page, and Shawn Ashmore will be joining a massive cast that already includes James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, and Hugh Jackman.  Speaking to Empire, Singer said, "It's epic. I don't think people realize how big this movie's going to be."  Oh, we realize it, Mr. Singer.  We realize it indeed.

Hit the jump for what Singer had to say about managing the time-travel, adapting the comic, and considering the previous X-Men movies.  X-Men: Days of Future Past is due out July 18, 2014.

For those unfamiliar with the comic, it involves a post-apocalyptic future where giant robots called Sentinels have almost completely exterminated all mutants.  Through the power of fellow mutant Rachel, an adult Kitty Pryde is able to switch minds with her younger self so she can warn the X-Men of an assassination that would trigger a chain of events leading to the horrible future.

Singer tells Empire that they've managed to come up with the time travel rules that will allow the X-Men: First Class characters cross with the original X-Men characters:

"We've cracked it in a way that it makes sense. I had a two-hour conversation with James Cameron about time travel, string theory, multiverses and all that. You have to create your rules and stick wtih them. That's why Terminator and Back To The Future work so well. And there are certain mechanisms in X-Men, certain powers, perceptions, and characters that make this possible."

Does this mean that Rachel will be in the movie?  It sounds like Singer is headed in that direction since he says that they will be drawing from the comic:

"It has a lot of aspects of the comic. The actual comic of Days Of Future Past had a whole ton of stuff going on, so it’s like any of these things; you have to distill it. But I think the fans will be pleased that some of the most exciting parts of Days Of Future Past are going to be connected to this movie."

By the time Days of Future Past opens, it will be the seventh X-Men movie, and Singer says that he'll be taking all of the previous films into consideration, although there will be some "clean-up" as well:

"I'm taking into account every movie – I’m not just grabbing my first two movies and First Class and smashing them together. I’m taking into account the entire universe as it’s been laid out so far on the screen, and really respecting it and trying to work with that. People took things in various directions, so there’s some clean-up. But ultimately I’m not just ignoring them either."

Still excited?  I know I am.