Bryan Singer recently talked to IGN to talk about X-Men: Days of Future Past, and there's a few things that I think fans are going to be happy to hear. I know I was! First of all he's going to use the film as an opportunity to fix some things that went wrong with Brett Ratner's X-Men: The Last Stand. It will be easy for him to do that since the new X-Men film includes a time travel element.
Here's the question and answer session for that segment of the interview:
IGN: One thing that’s interesting about the alternate universe/timeline in Days of Future Past is that it could potentially give you the opportunity to revisit things that happened in the third film in terms of characters and endings that you might like to see changed.
Bryan Singer: You mean, what you’re politely saying is, “fix s**t.” Is that what you’re saying? That’s what I’m hearing. [Laughing]
IGN: [Laughing] Maybe…
Singer: There’s going to be a little of that, a few things I can repair.
IGN: Are fans going to be pleased with these things you will be repairing?
Singer: I think so, I think so, yes.
I couldn't be happier to hear that! That means there's a possibility that we can actually see James Marsden back as Cyclops and Famke Janssen back as Jean Grey who were both ridiculously killed off in The Last Stand. When Singer is asked if he'd like to see these characters in the next movie he said,
Who wouldn’t? Who wouldn’t? [Laughing] That’s all I can say.
It would be amazing to see them come back. The director goes on to talk about the time travel story elements, and explains the balance between the First Class characters and original characters.
The movie takes place at different times. It deals with, I don't want to say time travel, but time displacement. A form of time travel which is steeped more in the X-Men [mythos].
The majority of it...or that part of it, takes place in the early 70’s, 1973. So Nixon is a character, and there will be different styles and automobiles. And there will be some futuristic, as well as retro, technology which you haven’t seen. There are science fiction aspects of the movie, and then there’s some retro science fiction that the X-Men films haven’t had quite yet. So we’re exploring that, which will be fun. And there’s an attitude [difference]. We discover our characters, particularly the younger characters, at a different place in their lives. Every character you discover in this movie is in a completely different place than you’ve ever seen, emotionally, and it's about them moving through that. Hilarity ensues!
Singer also talks about expanding the X-Men movie universe, and that they are thinking about how they can do that.
I think that if you really examine the X-Men universe it’s every bit as big as the Marvel universe. There are lesser characters, but if you take certain characters there are a myriad of films you could make, and stories you could tell, with these characters as individuals. Wolverine being one of them, and that’s currently being done. But you could really mine this universe. I’m glad to return to it and I’d like to get more involved in it because it hasn’t really been orchestrated – somewhat with the Wolverine pictures – but I think there is a lot more that one can do.
It’s just something we’re thinking about. Really my big focus was this movie. Because it’s really massive, and we’re going to start shooting soon. But we’re talking, [producer] Lauren Shuler Donner and I, and we’ll see.
With Singer back on board, I'm confident we're going to see another great X-Men movie! Are you happy to hear that he's going to be fixing some things, and that there's a possibility we'll see Cyclops and Jean Grey back for more action?
It's set to be released on July 18th, 2014. Simon Kinberg wrote the script, and it is based on Chris Claremont and John Byrne's comic book storyline, Days of Future Past, that ran in "Uncanny X-Men" #141 and 142 back in 1981. The story is set in an alternate future where surviving mutants have been thrown in concentration camps, Sentinels are patrolling America, and most of the X-Menhave been hunted down and killed. The present day X-Men are forced to stop a key event from unfolding in order to keep that future from occurring.
So far the confirmed cast members for the film include Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Peter Dinklage, Anna Paquin, Ellen Page, Shawn Ashmore, and Hugh Jackman.