Ever since director Matthew Vaughn (X-Men: First Class, Kick-Ass) left X-Men: Days of Future Past in the hands of Bryan Singer (X-Men, X-Men 2: United, Superman Returns), we've seen the film go from a sequel to 2011's X-Men: First Class, to an all out reunion of all the original X-Men cast members in what appears to be Singer's answer to X-Men 4. But with so many original cast members being confirmed to return to their respective roles, as well as returning characters from First Class and of course new cast additions, news on X-Men: Days of Future Past has been rapidly hitting the web. So rather then constantly confirming and denying rumors, now we've got it all for you in one collective post, you're welcome.
So where to begin with X-Men: Days of Future Past. Well as we already know that the movie will bring us a combination of X-Men from different time periods, presumably the First Class of X-Men and the Brotherhood of Mutants, and the post X-Men: The Last Stand team which is the current one. While it still remains unclear whether the mutants from both time periods will actually meet each other, but it doesn't seem likely as James McAvoy has already stated he and Patrick Stewart do not share any scenes together, although that doesn't stop the possibility of them communicating telepathically. While this may confirm the Charles Xavier won't be meeting his future self, it still remains unclear whether other First Class characters will run into their counterparts, such as Michael Fassbender and Ian McKellen's Magneto.
Both James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender will be returning as First Class versions of Xavier and Magneto, and Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen are also confirmed to return as the older counterparts. Nicholas Hoult will be returning as Hank McCoy aka Beast, and Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique. Now from the current X-Men, Hugh Jackman will be reprising his role as Wolverine directly after this summer's The Wolverine, and Ellen Page will be returning as a much more key Kitty Pryde/Shadow Cat. Also returning are Shawn Ashmore as Iceman, Anna Paquin as Rogue, Daniel Cudmore as Colossus, and Halle Berry as Storm.
On the First Class side of things, we so far know that we'll see the team now set in the 1970s, and it seems the times politics will come in to play with Richard Nixon some how being involved in the plot of that time period (Similar to in Zack Snyder's Watchmen). There's still no confirmation whether Lucas Till will be returning as Havok (Brother of Scott Summers/Cyclops), or Caleb Landry Jones as Banshee, but it's likely the team has been reshaped a bit in the eleven years since First Class. While Havok and Banshee don't seem as necessary to the movie due to the fact that they aren't even in the current X-Men line up (So something must of happened that disbanded them from the team), but we can only hope this is explained and not just left as a plot hole for a future film to patch up. So as I said, it does seem likely and realistic that both the X-Men and Magneto's Brotherhood would have some new recruits by the 70s, but if there will be we still have yet to know who they are, and if it can be a young Cyclops and Jean Grey as many fans have hoped for.
So there's really only two new major casting additions to Days of Future Past that have never made an appearance in the series before, and these two actors are Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones) and Omar Sy (The Intouchables). Much speculation has been made on just exactly who these two are playing, but it's been said they will have pivotal roles. Dinklage has been said to be playing a villain in the film, and most rumors have suggested that Dinklage will in fact be playing Bolivar Trask, the creator of the Sentinels who are expected to make an appearance in the film. While the character does fit the bill, as it's been confirmed that Dinklage won't be playing a motion capture character (Such as any of the Sentinels), but the problem is Bolivar Trask already appeared briefly in X-Men: The Last Stand. While Dinklage could just be playing a similar character with just a different name to avoid continuity issues, Fox may just be completely ignoring the existence of the character in The Last Stand.
As for Omar Sy, he's actually a French actor who has never starred in an American movie, but he was highly praised for his performance in the film The Intouchables. While Bryan Singer has yet to announce just what character Sy is portraying, many fans and sites have jumped to the conclusion that he'll be playing none other than Lucas Bishop. Bishop is a popular X-Men character who travels back in time from a post apocalyptic future who joins the X-Men. While Bishop's character might seem like a fitting choice to join Days of Future Past with it's time travel based story line, but it seems a bit of an odd choice since Bishop really isn't involved with the Days of Future Past story line at all. Not only that but Bishop has a very complicated back story, and introducing him would mean introducing the time period he came from into the story line, which would leave us with three different time periods all in one movie. If this is the case, we can go as far as to assume that this will open the door for other X-Men characters of the future including Cable and Hope Summers either appearing in this film or in a future sequel.
The Bishop idea may simply be a cameo or introduction of the character as of yet, but now that we're hearing plans of Fox's own Cinematic Universe coexisting all of their Marvel owned characters together, we can expect quite a few more X-Men films to come. Introducing Bishop and the mutants of the future could be a very interesting way to continue the X-Men franchise without having to resort to the same characters and actors constantly returning. Speaking of which, while Days of Future Past may seem like the opportunity to really begin the so called Fox Marvel Universe, especially with Josh Trank's Fantastic Four reboot coming out in 2015, it seems Bryan Singer has no plans to incorporate Days of Future Past into this. According to Bryan Singer, Mark Millar, who is reportedly going to godfather the Fox MCU (Similar to Kevin Fiege's role at Marvel Studios), has never met with Singer to discuss Days of Future Past and has no involvement with the film. This comes as a surprise as Matthew Vaughn, who is close friends with Millar, is not only still creatively involved with Days of Future Past but he was also recently announced to produce Josh Trank's Fantastic Four reboot.
Singer's quote to Bleeding Cool is as follows:
“I’ve not spoken to Mark Millar at all. He’s not involved. I don’t know what his role is about. All I know is that I have my own specific beliefs about how to take this universe forward. I started with the first X-Men, then First Class and now I am combining them and I think it could go further than that and I have some ideas about that, so perhaps he should chat to me at some point.”
Two characters we can definitely not expect to make an appearance in DOFP are both Nightcrawler and Azazel. Both actors who portray the roles, Jason Flemyng and Alan Cumming have stated that they won't be appearing in the film. Azazel's lack of return comes as less of a surprise, with the character not even having a speaking part in First Class, although it was expected that is character would have more to do in a sequel, and maybe even have the fact that him and Mystique are Nightcrawler's parents explained in the film. But Alan Cumming was even named dropped by James McAvoy during an interview as a returning actor in DOFP, but it seems that wasn't exactly accurate since Cumming himself has denied any involvement with the film, and on top of that he says he won't even be available when filming begins.
And lastly we have to most recent castings that Bryan Singer has confirmed via twitter which are Chinese actress Fan Bingbing and Twilight actor Boo Boo Stewart. Boo Boo Stewart has been cast in an unspecified role, but rumors suggest that he can be playing popular X-Men character Forge, or Thunderbird who like Stewart is of Native American decent. As for Bingbing, she's been confirmed to be playing none other than X-Men mutant and teleporter Blink, most likely making up for the absence of teleporters Azazel and Nightcrawler. The featuring of Blink further supports the rumors of Apocalypse making some sort of appearance in the film as Blink plays a very key role in the film, and if Omar Sy is indeed playing Bishop we could either be seeing a mix of both the Days of Future Past and Age of Apocalypse storlines, or perhaps a set-up for the next sequel.
So what do you think of X-Men: Days of Future Past? Could it be the best X-Men film yet?
