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Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart Join 'X-Men: Days of Future Past'

by Ethan Anderton
November 27, 2012

X-Men: Days of Future Past / Magneto and Professor X

On the same day that news of Star Wars: Episode VII was announced, Bryan Singer was also confirmed as the replacement director on X-Men: Days of Future Past after Matthew Vaughn decided to drop the X-Men: First Class sequel. It was like living in 1999 all over again. Now we have word that a couple blasts from X-Men past will be joining Days of Future Past. Singer updated Twitter to let everyone know that Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart will reprise their roles as Magneto and Professor X respectively. However, Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy will also be reprising those roles from X-Men: First Class.

Here are the two updates from Singer's personal Twitter account which also announce the official return of Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique (we knew this because of her schedule for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire) and Nicholas Hoult as Beast:

Thrilled to announce @ianmckellen118 & @sirpatstew are joining the cast of #XMEN #DaysOfFuturePast #magneto #professorX More to come...

— Bryan Singer (@BryanSinger) November 27, 2012

I'd like to officially welcome back James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, & Nicholas Hoult to #XMEN for #DaysOfFuturePast

— Bryan Singer (@BryanSinger) November 27, 2012

Now for those of you who might be confused as to how these four actors are reprising the same two roles, perhaps it's time to recall the comic book storyline for Days of Future Past from Wikipedia:

The storyline alternates between present day, in which the X-Men fight Mystique's Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, and a future timeline caused by the X-Men's failure to prevent the Brotherhood from assassinating Senator Robert Kelly. In this future universe, Sentinels rule the United States, and mutants live in internment camps. The present-day X-Men are forewarned of the possible future by a future version of their teammate Kitty Pryde, whose mind traveled back in time and possessed her younger self to warn the X-Men. She succeeds in her mission and returns to the future, but despite her success, the future timeline still exists as an alternative timeline rather than as the actual future.

So with that time travel element, it's not hard to see why the older versions of Magneto and Professor X will appear in the film. The question will be how the continuity between the original X-Men franchise (of which Singer directed the first two installments) and this new prequel franchise will bridge together. Again, the time travel makes it easy, but we still don't specifics. I'm sure the film version of this story will be different from the comic book anyway. Singer says there's more to come so stay tuned. Well?

Filed under Casting, Movie News, Rumors

From around the web:

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000582616424 Daniel 'Ranger Danger' Felts

yay
bat0u

oh helll yes!
Steve Stathius

I wonder if Singer's insistence on previous movie tie ins, and an overly convoluted plot, is why Vaughn left
- http://www.facebook.com/chris.groves.507 Chris Groves
  
  Maybe...Vaughn seemed pretty stoked about First Class being a reboot...but it seemed like Singer was the one who wanted to work in the Hugh Jackman and Rebecca Romijn cameos. Either way, Singer makes good X-Men movies...so I'm fine with him taking it back over.
Noe

This movie has the potential to be one of the best, it's almost too good to be true. In great hands, all-around.
- Rpin
  
  You couldn't be more wrong. Singer will ruin this great comic book story.
  - korbindallis
    
    dude what are you talking about Singer made X-Men and X2 and produced First Class the rest were crap part 3 and Origins so he is the only one that can do it justice
jah p

Isn't it about time that Apacolypse showed up in these movies?
Magnus

This will be the greatest superhero movie ever.
Isildur_of_Numenor

Ian McKellan back as Magneto? This sounds too awesome to be true.
http://www.facebook.com/chris.groves.507 Chris Groves

Pretty much what we all expected. The Wolverine is a sequel to 'The Last Stand' with flashbacks. Days of Future Past will be both a sequel to THAT and a sequel to First Class. I love this. No more arguing about reboots or what ignores what...everything is included. I'm a happy camper.
- Richie G
  
  If they could find a way to negate Last Stand and Wolverine Origins I'll be a happy man
  - http://www.facebook.com/chris.groves.507 Chris Groves
    
    I for one loved The Last Stand. It wasn't the RIGHT conclusion to the trilogy...but as a stand alone movie is was massively entertaining. It has the best pacing and action sequences of any of the films so far, in my opinion. Plus, now that this franchise has expanded to greatly...it failing as a grand conclusion to the story doesn't really matter as much...it's just a one-off. Origins wasn't very good, but I still enjoyed it more than most...seeing Wolverine's backstory fleshed out in film form was something I wanted for a long time.
    - Richie G
      
      I wish I could see them in the same way, pretty tired of being disapointed. Still optomistic about the new projects though
TigerClaw305

That is some great news, Its also a nice way to tie the previous movies with the new ones.
Thexn

Proven fact: Bryan Singer has not yet made a bad X-Men film. This alone has me interested in this upcoming film. Add in the possibility of a chance to see Michael Fassbender & James McAvoy's Eric and Charles play directly opposite Sirs Ian McKellan & Patrick Stewart's? The nerdgasm of this magnitude will surely cause heads to explode in the theaters. Most of all I just want to see a decent version of Colossus throwing a "Fastball Special" Wolverine through a Sentinel.
Cody W

I think Vaughn couldnt do it because hes gonna be busy directing some jediii if ya catch my drift, thats right im callin it now.
ticketmaster

X-Men needs to go back to Marvel so we can get a real x-men film
David Banner

Days of Future Past: Beast: "Oh, I see you have updated my Cerebro". Xavier: "Who's Cerebro??" Stuff to fix/explain: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hs3C6d-9_tA