More X-Men From Original Trilogy Cast in Days of Future Past
Saturday, January 26th, 2013 at 7:56 pm Category: NewsBryan Singer recently took to Twitter to announce that even more of the cast from the original X-Men trilogy will have a part to play in next year’s follow up to First Class. His tweet, which read, “Very excited to welcome #annapaquin, @ellenpage & @shawnrashmore to #XMen #DaysofFuturePast - thank you @BrettRatner for letting them live!” means that we will also get to see the return of Rogue, Kitty Pryde and Iceman, respectively. Throw in the confirmed Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, and Ian McKellen (no word yet on Famke Janssen, James Marsden or Halle Berry), and we are almost set for a complete X-Men reunion! Granted, no one knows exactly how big a role the original actors will play in the sequel, but we can hope that Singer will be able to do something with them to take the bad taste of Last Stand out of our mouths.
Speaking of Last Stand, it will be interesting to see how and when the X-Men from the future will interact with their past selves due to the devastating events that took place in the third movie. As most of us remember, that film ends with Cyclops and Jean Grey dead, Xavier’s body destroyed, and a Rogue who has given up all her powers. One train of thought, while highly unlikely (and discussed on January’s Big Shiny Podcast) is that Singer will use time travel to undo the effects of Last Stand and thus free up the continuity it locked up for other, better, stories.
What do you think? Will Singer stick to the events laid out in the comics, or will he use them to free himself, and future films, from the corner that Brett Ratner so unwisely trapped everyone in?
Responses to “More X-Men From Original Trilogy Cast in Days of Future Past”
I think first and foremost Bryan Singer will focus on telling a good story. He’s never vocalised his feelings on X3, but it strikes me that making a movie for the express purpose of ‘undoing’ the events of another movie, is bad movie making. Not to mention insulting to those involved in making the movie that’s being wiped away. It’s clear that certain wrinkles in the plot left by X3 will need to ironed out. Characters having, or not having powers though, losing and regaining their abilities, dying, and returning; these are common occurrences in X-Men stories. It something they can have fun with actually.
We may not have enjoyed X3, but the thing to do is – like with the comics – accept it and move on. If there are characters whose deaths you need to reverse in order to tell your story, then do so. But don’t go negating the entire flick because you didn’t like it. Just tell a story that people can appreciate and enjoy. That’s all that matters.
They could just ignore it, I suppose. First Class ostensibly did. It’s really only X3 – with the exception of Xavier’s line in X1 about being 17 when he first met Eric – with which it’s continuity doesn’t quite parse(though most savvy comic/movie fans are quite capable of making it work in their own heads, with just a little effort).
Some folks might feel better just accepting First Class and Days of Future Past – despite the return of so many familiar faces – as being wholly separate from the original three movies. For myself though, I’m gonna take it that they all exist in the same continuity, and any deviations I’ll take as an opportunity to have fun with trying to make them make sense.
We’ll see, I suppose…
I’m with my cousin up there. I don’t really care how Singer handles it, other than handling it well. Which I’m sure he will. I STILL haven’t read the GN, which stinks and is kind of embarrassing, but I’m mostly just excited to see all generations of the team in a story together.
I know this is an older post now, but I just revisited it and thought I’d mention something about that pesky ‘Ratner corner’. When you look at the film again, the majority (if not all) of the damage done by Ratner can be easily undone. Lost powers? Just take a close look at the chess piece Magneto tries so hard to move at the end of the film; it moves, suggesting the ‘cure’ may not in fact be permanent, freeing Magneto, Mystique, and Rogue up from that executive decision. Xavier didn’t really die, of course, so he can easily return via his consciousness transfer to Moira MacTaggert’s brain dead subject, shown at the end of the credits. And as with the comics in the Phoenix sagas, bringing back Jean Grey and Cyclops shouldn’t prove to be too difficult a task for the experienced X-Men writer, even without taking the easy time travel route. If anyone can pull it off without a hitch, it’s Singer.
Speaking of Moira MacTaggert, besides the continuity issue that was mentioned before about Xavier’s age when he met Magneto, this is the only other issue I see. Do we use American CIA operative MacTaggert from First Class, or Scottish scientist MacTaggert from X3?