There is much confusion and speculation still surrounding the next X-Men film, X-Men: Days of Future Past. The sequel to X-Men: First Class sees the return of X-Men 1 & 2 director Bryan Singer to the helm, telling a story that will introduce new levels of sci-fi into the X-Men movie universe.
Today we have a one important piece of this puzzle to share: where Days of Future Past fits into the X-Men movie timeline – at least, where the sequel starts off in the timeline. Considering the time travel plot device, this film could literally be all over the place.
CBM got heads up from TV Chiquita about a casting call sheet for Days of Future Past; if you don’t know, these sheets – which describe the type of actors needed for a part and a brief bit about what kind of character they’ll play – often contain nice tidbits that rumor hounds can scrutinize and use to deduce facts about a film. In this case, the casting sheet dropped the following piece of info:
Most of the film takes place in 1973.
That would be 11 years after the 1962 setting of First Class. If further evidence is needed, here’s the call description for what seem to be extras:
Look 1973. Hair should be left to grow as well as sideburns, mustaches and beards. Modern hair color and hair cuts will be OUT for this film.
Now, this isn’t too surprising for several reasons. First of all, it’s been teased (and to a certain degree assumed) all along that the First Class continuity could essentially “decade hop.” It started in the ’60s, so the ’70s were always looked at as the natural followup point for the sequel.
’70s-era X-Men
However, even if this casting call sheet is to be believed, the fact remains that the ’70s are still just the starting point for Days of Future Past. With characters from the original trilogy all returning, and the obvious plot device of time travel (which will hopefully straighten out many of the nagging continuity issues with these films), where this Days of Future Past plotline will go is still a mystery.
Will the original trilogy characters all be presented as aged versions of themselves (from a more distant future)? Or will that “future” be kept in real time – meaning, eight years after the events of X-Men 3 by the time the movie is released in 2014? We know The Wolverine will be taking place after X3 and will leave us with a “changed” Logan by the end of the film; that new improved Logan could potentially be a key player in Days of Future Past (as he was in the comic storyline) – especially since we already know Wolverine is confirmed for the film.
All the worries about timeline jumping and continuity aside, starting off in the ’70s could allow for some convenient tidying up of storylines and characters – such as how Charles Xavier becomes bald Professor X; how Magneto flourishes as a terrorist and builds the brotherhood; and even why characters like Emma Frost (January Jones) aren’t returning. The one curious thing is that the call sheet mentions that the film is “mostly” set in that era; could this film devote much less screen time to the future than originally anticipated? It’d be easy to see how the primary focus would be the race (in the 70s era) to prevent the disastrous event that corrupts the timeline in the first place.
Comic book aficionados will tell you that the ’70s era of X-Men comics was definitely a special time; an era that introduced the Phoenix, saw Wolverine, Storm, Colossus and Nightcrawler join the team, brought back The Sentinels (which will likely be featured in this film) – all under the hand of legendary creators like Dave Cockrum, John Byrne and Chris Claremont. Even if Days of Future Past is (at least in title) drawing from ’80s-era X-Men storylines, there are still plenty of nods the film can give to the proceeding decade. They just better not include any disco stuff (unless we get Dazzler with it)!
What are your thoughts on the decade shift? The potential time-jumping? And all those lingering continuity issues? Let us know in the comments.
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X-Men: Days of Future Past will be in theaters on July 18, 2014.
Source: CBM & TV Chiquita
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Correct me if I’m wrong… but don’t you need the Fantastic Four to do a proper Days of Future Past? Isn’t it Reed and Sue’s kid that is responsible for all the time-line distortion?
No, he´s just one of the surviving mutants and is killed pretty early in the story. But, last week, I said it´d be the perfect opportunity to start the shared X-Men/FF universe by including Franklin.
Makes sense to me. I know I read the story in the early 80′s, but there is no way I can remember back that far. Not with all the weed I smoked. Mind giving a recap so I don’t have to go to Wikipeda.
My thoughts right now is will Cable or Bishop be within the film? I really hope Cable could he’ll be easy to put in the film & future films regarding Apolcalypse. Stephen Lang still has my vote for that role. Another thing on my mind is will there be a X4 & X5 as mentioned when/if they’re done with First Class films?
Welp..the best we can hope for out of this movie are cool xmen and good fight scenes because a storyline that makes sense will not come out of this one. A reboot is what I thought XFC was but if they want to bring back the cast and director from the xtrilogy well might as well go back to the failures of casting for Storm and colossus and the epic fails of the writers killing off cyclops, jean and prof x (although he transferred his conciousness). They just either need to start fresh from XFC or fix the timeline with everything that happened in the trilogy. After the line of superhero movies we’ve gotten lately, xmen trilogy will go down as the worse ever. I watched them all again this past weekend and could not stop getting pissed off at how many mistakes and misuses of good characters occured. Just an epic fail all the way around except for nightcrawler. Wolverine was the only good thing about the films and even he was used wrong he was never a leader when storm or cyclops were around. SMFH
I actually thought the casting for Storm and Colossus was pretty descent. At least I thought Halle Berry and Daniel Cudmore did a pretty good job. Wolverine was still the best though. But again, the orginal X-Men films were pretty good.
This, to me, is reminding me of a snowball effect. Let say someone (producers/marketing) announces to all that he holds this snowball (movie) and that it is the absolute perfect snowball (movie) he or she made. That once it rolls down the hill, all will gaze at it’s glorious perfection. But as it rolls down the hill to us, taking months to get to us, it amasses dirt (re-writes), obstacles (actors’ or tech problems), and trash to some degree until once it comes down the hill (release), it barely ressembles what we imagined it was initially or what was promised. Many could argue that it’s still a snowball (good movie) at it’s core (acceptance) while some may see the dents and holes (loose-ends and poor use of the characters) mishapening it to the degree that it can no longer qualifies as a perfect snowball (movie). It’s all way too soon to really know what it will turn out to be, but I’m hoping really hard that it is what it’s promised : the x-men movie that will continue to redeem the superhero genre.
I would really feel better if they used the XMFC crew along with a totally new group that is from the future. You can use the same actors (and change those that sucked) and it would be easier to correct the continuity problems because there would really be none from the original trilogy to mess with.
My question is this, if this movie makes money and they decide to make more Xmen movies, do they stick with the first class concept and doing period films? At some point wouldn’t there need to be a modern day xmen? If you do a modern xmen and you do this crossover movie, how do you explain this team not being the same actors as the ones that portrayed them in the original movies?
If this isn’t a reboot for first class then will movies from here on be considered reboots if they take place in modern day with the first class actors?
Bottom line is this sounds way too complicated to be good
I don’t get why they would use the producer from the other x-men movies.. Doesn’t that defeat the object of making a reboot? You didn’t see Tim burton being called up for the new batman movies ( not that I have anything against Tim burton. Just the only example I could quickly think of)
I will probably get a lot of flack for asking this, as I am just a casual watcher of the old cartoon series and an avid admirer of all the X-MEN films (except for XM3 of course)but can’t this next movie just be a continuation? This one takes place in the 70s, then the next one takes place in the late 80s and catches us up more or less to the first X-MEN (2000)? Then pick up where XM3 left off? What are the inconsistencies that everyone’s talking about that have to be corrected? The only one I saw in FIRST CLASS was Mystique and Charles knowing each other, which is big, I grant you, but what am I missing? Do we need time travel a whole mess of complications that could fuzz up a clear story?
There was also the fact that Xavier lost use of his legs before he became bald. It contradicts a scene in X-Men Origins: Wolverine where he’s standing and he’s bald. And the fact that Hank helps build Cerebro contradicts mention in the first X-Men and X2 that Magneto and Xavier were the sole ones who built Cerebro.
Professor X lost and regained the use of his legs several times within the comics by various means. How is this any different in the movie series? I don’t see this as a continuity error. He originally lost the use of his legs in First Class, regained them by some means by the time of Origins, then lost them again by the time of the original trilogy. This is no different than what happened in the comics. Pretty simple.
There was also the fact that Xavier lost use of his legs before he became bald. It contradicts a scene in X-Men Origins: Wolverine where he’s standing and he’s bald. And the fact that Hank helps build Cerebro contradicts mention in the first X-Men and X2 that Magneto and Xavier were the only builders.
my friends and I request for X-Men Days of Future Past 2014 film
Here Currents list ;
- Halle Berry as Storm ( a Leader )
- James Marsden as Cyclops
- Famke Janssen as bigger role ( White Phoenix of the Crown )
- Charlize Theron as Emma Frost
- Taylor Kitsch as Gambit
- Ian Somerhalder as Havok
- Terry Crew as Bishop
- Angelina Jolie as Scarlet Witch
- Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler
- Sarah Jessica Parker as Selene – The Black Queen
- Kelsey Grammer as Beast
- Daniel Cudmore as Colossus
- Rebecca Romijn as Mystique
- Kelly Hu as Lady Deathstrike
- Vinnie Jones as Juggernaut
- Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool
- Sean Bean as Sunfire
- Kevin Durand as Blob
- Kevin Bacon as Sebastian Shaw
- Ben Foster as Archangel
- Clive Owen as Avalanche
- Tyler Mane as Sabretooth
- Aaron Stanford as Pyro
- Ray Park as Toad
- Bruce Davison as Senator Kelly
- Olivia Williams as Dr Moira Mctaggart
The Villain isn’t just Sentinels as well, but with Age of Apocalypse as well, such as Apocalypse Mister Sinister Holocaust Exodus Archangel, they must be in…
Now Mystique is worked for Apocalypse and Lady Deathstrike should appear with Weapon X
Dude, Angelina Jolie and Sarah Jessica Parker? lol you lost me there. And Charlize Theron is already known for playing Mystique why give her another role? I think you are over-thinking this.
My bad mistook Charlize for Rebecca Romijn…. Ohhh they are both smokin!
Okay so if we’re talking about xmen in the future going to the past will we see Bishop & Apocalypse and the plague outbreak.
I think that the only actor to keep from the original 3 films would be Hugh Jackman, and only if they “depussify” Wolverine. Other than that, I would say that the only way to make a really good Marvel movie is for the film rights to be bought back by Disney. Until that happens, all of these fringe Marvel movies such as Xmen, Spiderman, FF, Ghostrider will continue to be crap
Best comment goes to X5000AD. Jackman stays, everyone else must go!
I listen to a lot of argumentative towards the series in regard to continuity. I must admit I agree with much of them. But If I were a writer I think a few mishaps could be rectified in future films.
1. Cyclops Death: Cyclops’ body was never seen in the film as proof of his death. So what if Jean Grey detected her power going out of control and used her nearly god-like Phoenix strength to place him into a catatonic state and hid his body at the bottom of the lake to protect him from herself?
2. The Death of Jean Grey: Grey’s powers were of the chain when she was the Phoenix. Is it not possible for her character to have transformed into something un-worldly? Jean in true Phoenix lore should be reborn from her own ashes. In her end she simply became ash. So it only makes sense that she be reborn from those ashes after all that is what a Phoenix does.
3. Sabertooth’s transformation: Sabertooth is depicted in Wolverine as a relatively normal looking character. However in the first X-men film he is a giant and has unbelievable strength. He kept fighting with Logan’s scientists to “give him the adamantium” but the scientist refused saying “you will not survive”. What if, instead of being given adamantium he was provided something else that explains how he transformed into the beast we seen in X-men the first film?
4. Cerebro: Cerebro was claimed to have built by Magneto and Xavier but later in First Class we learned it was helped by Hank McCoy (aka Beast). I find this rather trivial but one could view it in this light, Beast was the brains of the operation, Xaxier the financier, Magneto the brawn. However, looking at the complex cerebro from the trilogy vs the simplified version of the cerebro in the First Class film, what if in the alternate time lines forge came along to aide in the update of Cerebro? I just think that would be cool.
5. To Apocolyps or Not to Apocolyps?: If Jean Grey is to return it makes sense to ensure there is a character worthy of her to fight does it not? I say bring Apocolyps into the game but do it in a fashion that captures his Egyptian Faro history. What if his release happened during the excavation of a recently discovered Egyptian tomb? Imagine the X-men watching television of the broadcast when a blue hand reaches out from a sarcophagus to crush the head of an archeologist.
6. What to Fix?: Foremost on my list would be to place power back into the team field commander Cyclops. He was grossly under-developed thus far in all of the films. The movies painted him to to be a pretty boy and did little to display what his talents really are. I would possibly consider making the re-development of Cyclops and essential part of any new films. Second on this list would be to make Rogue have an encounter (Marvel Girl or an alternate like story) where she finally obtains her powers of flight, 50 ton class strength in addition to her powers to absorb mutant capabilities and kill with long periods of touch. Third, back off of Wolverine to an extent. There has been far too much focus on his character in all three of the first films and now he has another two spin off films of his own. It is high time the other characters are developed and story lines need to follow them to a much greater extent.
6. Time Lines and Continuity: Time lines enable many outcomes through the changing of history. The film needs to take the opportunity to bring in the future casts of Forge, Cable, Bishop and Chard. For it is Forge’s technology that allows for time travel in the first place. It is Bishop who feels his job is to use time as a weapon for change. It is Cable who is Appocolyps’ hunter and who don’t want to see Chard the sexy mutant sister of Bishop running around in a tight leather costume (talk about movie magic lol).
There is more continuity in question than simply when Xavior lost his legs. In X-Men 3, Xavior and Magneto are much older and happily working together (and both walking) when they go to see the child Jean Grey. This takes place sometimes in the 80′s or 90′s I would assume. Many years after their so called breaking apart and becoming enemies as seen on the island in X-Men First Class. I am sorry everyone, but X-Men First Class is not a prequel. It is a reboot. The fact that this new movie is claiming to build off of events from X-Men 3 and X-Men First Class (according to wiki) is simply going to be continuity mayhem and makes no sense to me. I can not accept X-Men First Class as a prequel, because well… it is not.
Here is a paste from imdb, stating that X-Men First Class is not a prequel.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1270798/faq
What are the differences with the other films?
Please keep in mind that this film is not connected to the previous four films. It is a revamp of the storyline, illustrating conceptual origins of the characters. In X2, Hank McCoy appears in human form before his mutation is manifested by the third film, whereas in First Class, he goes through his transformation for the first time as a young man. In X2, there is an instance where Sebastian Shaw is speaking with McCoy on television. However, this is debatable as to whether it’s canon. In the beginning of The Last Stand (during a flashback) and Wolverine, Xavier has full use of his legs in his 40′s, whereas, at the end of First Class, Xavier is wheelchair bound in his 20′s. In the opening of of The Last Stand, Eric and Xavier are working together to recruit Jean Grey in the 1980s or 1990s. In this film, they go their separate ways much earlier in life. In the first X-Men movie, Professor X tells Logan that he met Erik Lehnsherr when he was 17 years old which, given the fact that Erik was at least in his mid-teens during WWII and the knowledge that they weren’t too far apart in years, would probably have been somewhere in the late ’40′s to just around 1950. According to First Class, they met for the first time in their mid-20s in 1962.
["Look 1973. Hair should be left to grow as well as sideburns, mustaches and beards. Modern hair color and hair cuts will be OUT for this film."]
Considering that “X-MEN: FIRST CLASS” looked more like it was set in 1968/69 than 1962, I find the above comment a bit ludicrous.
maybe im just being sort of dumb but the first two x men films and first class are set around 30-40 years apart, if this is true how is the age difference between havok and Cyclops explained considering they’re supposed to be brothers