The upcoming sequel to last year’s excellent X-Men: First Class is shaping up to be one hell of a superhero movie.  X-Men and X2 director Bryan Singer recently signed on to replace Matthew Vaughn in the director’s chair for X-Men: Days of Future Past after Vaughn abruptly opted to step back to producer role, and we recently learned that a few actors from Singer’s X-Men films will be reprising their roles in the sequel.  Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan are poised to return as Professor X and Magneto, respectively, and late last week Hugh Jackman entered talks to reprise his role as Wolverine.It’s not exactly a surprise, then, as word now comes that Singer plans to bring back even more original trilogy castmembers for Days of Future Past.  Hit the jump for more, including how all these characters will fit into the story. x-men-days-of-future-pastWhen it was first revealed that the First Class sequel would be based on the comics arc “Days of Future Past,” fans had an inkling that we might be seeing some familiar faces.  The complex comics storyline involves time travel, alternate timelines, and a dystopian future, and it appears that that’s just what we’ll see in the Singer-helmed sequel.THR reports that the story “will straddle the 1960s setting established in 2011’s X-Men: First Class and the future of the original trilogy, where mutants are a hunted minority.”  As such, the report notes that new deals are being struck with original trilogy stars to return.  Halle Berry and James Marsden are mentioned as examples, but the report doesn’t give single out which actors Singer specifically wants to return.  Apparently there’s a large amount of willingness to come back on the actors’ parts as they’re very fond of Singer.  Moreover, they’re only needed for scenes depicting the alternate dystopic future so it wouldn't be a major time commitment.First Class stars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, and Nicholas Hoult are already confirmed to be returning, and I’ll be interested to see how Singer balances the 1960s storyline with the future-set scenes.  The ambitious plot is definitely exciting, but it provides quite the challenge for Singer to pull off.  I’m sure we’ll hear more casting additions soon as we move closer to the film’s April production start-date.  X-Men: Days of Future Past opens on July 18, 2014.x-men-first-class