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Paquin, Page & Ashmore Are Returning for 'X-Men: Days of Future Past'

by Ethan Anderton
January 26, 2013
Source: Twitter

Anna Paquin / Ellen Page / Shawn Ashmore

After Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen were announced to reprise their roles as Professor X and Magneto respectively (with James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender still playing the younger versions of those same characters) in X-Men: Days of Future Past, we knew something interesting was going on with the sequel to X-Men: First Class. Then Hugh Jackman was confirmed to return as Wolverine, and now the story is getting even more interesting as more X-Men characters from the original trilogy are back. Anna Paquin, Ellen Page and Shawn Ashmore will reprise their roles as Rogue, Shadowcat and Iceman respectively.

Here's what director Bryan Singer said on Twitter:

Very excited to welcome #annapaquin, @ellenpage & @shawnrashmore to #XMen #DaysofFuturePast - thank you @brettratner for letting them live!

— Bryan Singer (@BryanSinger) January 26, 2013

For those who still haven't caught up, here's the synopsis from the comic on which the sequel is based:

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.

Obviously some details will be changed, but as producer Matthew Vaughn said previously, "It's X-Men meets The Terminator. You've got robots, you've got time travel, you've got superheroes - it's got everything in one film." It's not clear just how big their roles will be, but there have been rumblings that they will be part of some alternate future timeline, and only in the film for a brief bit. This sounds like it could be very confusing, but tying the new franchise to the old X-Men series will be very cool if they can pull it off. It sounds like it will be a great big sci-fi romp, so stay tuned for anymore updates. Excited for this cast?

Filed under Casting, Movie News, SciFi

From around the web:

dgeet

this movie just got so much better, lovin the huge cast
OfficialJab

That little shoutout to Ratner is interesting, considering that he kinda spat in his face by retconning X3.
- Thexn
  
  I'm thinking it was more of a jab in Ratner's side more than a shoutout. The whole "for letting them live" thing sort of seems a little acidic.
  - OfficialJab
    
    Yeah that's what I meant by 'interesting'. Especially since Ellen wasn't even in X3.
    - Thexn
      
      Sure she was. She wasn't in X1 or X2. Sumela Kay was Shadowcat/Kitty Pryde in that brief scene in the original.
      - OfficialJab
        
        Wow I'm a moron, you're right of course. Everybody downvote my comment there, I deserve it.
      - Thexn
        
        Nah, I think you were merely trying to do what all the rest of us were and using selective memory to try and forget that third movie ever existed. No harm no foul there.
      - OfficialJab
        
        Funny thing is I like it more than 1. Kelsey Grammar, Magneto smushing those cop cars, Prof X ;_; , and Storm's cute do. Also, I just don't see what the big deal was why everyone hates it. X2 was amazing, but I don't think 1 was very good... I even liked Wolverine more. Though I think I can mostly identify the problem, now that I think about it. I'm not an X-Men fan. I've just seen the films, so their lore breaches don't bother me; so Deadpool was just neat to me, not an abomination.
      - http://www.facebook.com/chris.groves.507 Chris Groves
        
        While The Last Stand was a departure from X-Men and X2, and not the 'proper conclusion' to that trilogy, it's still a great movie all on it's own. In fact, this franchise has veered so far from 'trilogy' now that it doesn't matter...each film is telling it's own story and they are so different stylistically and etc that The Last Stand being a sort of 'one-off' is fine. Origins and First Class, in MY opinion, were the films that weren't so great...but they are still good.
      - David Banner
        
        Yeah, she didn't have her little dragon, easy to forget her then
- http://www.facebook.com/chris.groves.507 Chris Groves
  
  X3 hasn't been retconned. Origins, X-Men, X2, The Last Stand, and 'The Wolverine' are ONE timeline, and 'First Class' is another...'Days of Future Past' will clearly cross the two.
  - OfficialJab
    
    Unless I'm wrong (which I've already been on this page) Emma Frost appears in O:W as a teenager, and obviously as an adult in FC, and also Xavier can walk in that X3 flashback as well as in O:W. Pretty minor things, but they seemed to speak volumes. I'm not really sure why they had him become paralyzed at the end of FC. Fought the canon, and seemed like an odd way to have it occur. Is that how it happened in the comics?
    - http://www.facebook.com/chris.groves.507 Chris Groves
      
      Well...that's where the rationale of First Class being separate comes in. If you don't consider it as part of the same universe as the others...then the continuity issues can be permitted. The comics probably handled things every which way...they are all over the place.
Thexn

The more they can tie this newer franchise off to the two decent films that Singer made the better as far as I'm concerned. The more we can move to make it so that Ratner train-wreck "never happened" the better as well. And while I know Ellen Page's portrayal of Kitty Pryde didn't show up until number 3, I can forgive that. Mixing the old with the new sounds good to me.
- http://www.facebook.com/chris.groves.507 Chris Groves
  
  They aren't 'ignoring' X3...the fact that they have Page back as Kitty Pryde pretty much DOES acknowledge The Last Stand as canon...and Singer noting that those 3 didn't die in The Last Stand further acknowledges it...essentially saying 'we can bring them back because they didn't get killed'. First Class is essentially an 'alternate timeline' to Origins, X-Men, X2, and The Last Stand. Both 'The Wolverine' and 'Days of Future Past' take place after The Last Stand, and 'Days' is also going to continue off from where 'First Class' occurred.
  - Thexn
    
    I realize that X3 is canon. I just think it's unfortunate it is. While it was unfortunate that Singer left the franchise to complete Superman Returns, (another horrible mistake, but that's another thread), I just think it was equally unfortunate the mess Ratner, Kinberg and Penn made out of the series.
    - http://www.facebook.com/chris.groves.507 Chris Groves
      
      It certainly wasn't the proper conclusion to what, at the time, was going to go down as a trilogy. If it went down that there were only 3 X-men films before some sort of reboot...that last one would have been the odd-one-out. But this is now a franchise with 5 films and another 2 on the way. There are prequels, parallelquels, sequels, etc all in this franchise now. The Last Stand is no longer the 'grand finale' so the problems stemming from it not being the proper finale are alleviated...it becomes more of a one off sequel with it's own story, just as 'The Wolverine' will be. I for one think that considering that it went through numerous directors and script incarnations, it has a great pace, style, and the best action sequences of any of the films so far. Not to mention it actually had the guts to kill major characters off...which you never get in these types of films.
      - Thexn
        
        Well, I'll say this for it at least, it had the right idea in relieving us of James Marsden as Cyclops. What a horrible casting choice that was.
BinaryChaos

I don't care how long their presence is in the film as long as their faces brings consistency to the franchise.
http://www.facebook.com/chris.groves.507 Chris Groves

Yes! It's officially X-Men 4, more or less. I love it.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1593169740 Chris Amaya

ERMAHGERD I RUV ERREN PERGE!
DAVIDPD

Now, I am getting a little more worried. It's diminishing returns...
David Banner

This just gets better and better All this from 2 issues, The Uncanny X-Men issues #141 and #142, but you might as well read the 3 before and 1 after: http://www.comixology.com/X-Men-Days-of-Future-Past/comics-story-arc/960
http://www.facebook.com/TheChosenPessimist Jon Odishaw

I've got to say I've lost a lot of interest since Vaughn left the project. I'm almost more excited for Mangolds Wolverine.
- OfficialJab
  
  That's sounding better all the time.
Steve Stathius

This is more disheartening news about DoFP. Why do I have to suffer through more Anna Paquin and Shawn Ashmore performances? (Didn't Rogue lose her abilities at the end of X3?) Despite her playing the same character in every movie, I tend to like Ellen Page, but her Kitty Pride was mediocre at best. I really hope that all of these returning cast members from the original trilogy are cameos. (Page is the only one we really need for the story, right?) If they are not, they are just taking away screen time from those in the First Class cast. Fassbender and McAvoy were amazing, and Jennifer Lawrence is probably the best young actress out there. Why rob them of (hopefully) impressive follow up performances with more of what we've already seen?
- http://www.facebook.com/WingcommanderIV Andrew Geczy
  
  First of all I liked both Anna Paquin and Shawn Ashmore. Also, though a lot of people lost their abilities, the end of X3 made it quite clear the cure was only temporary. Also, First Class was so boring, and completely wasted the character of Shaw, the only thing I liked about it was Mcavoy, Lawrence, and Fassbender. That was the only thing the movie has going for it, other than that it was as shallow as Wolverine: Origins to me.