What better way to connect the first events and characters of the first three X-Men movies to those of X-Men: First Class than with a neat time-travel plot? That's the idea behind X-Men: Days of Future Past, in which a 21st century Wolverine has his consciousness sent back to his 1970s body, with the task of preventing the dark path that mankind and mutantkind alike are set upon.

In the comic book arc after which the film is named, the mutants face a future in which they are rounded up and either killed or placed in concentration camps through the use of technology created by Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage), including the dreaded Sentinels. The mutant-hunting robots were just one of the innovations featured on a viral site for Trask Industries that was launched earlier this year.

Twentieth Century Fox isn't happy with just one viral website, however. The Bent Bullet, and its own accompanying video, covers the mutant involvement in the John F. Kennedy assassination in 1963, a year after the end of X-Men: First Class and ten years before the main story of X-Men: Days of Future Past (it's a very timely - perhaps tacky? - piece of marketing, coming hot on the hells of the 50th anniversary of Kennedy's death). The video reveals that Eric Lensherr (Michael Fassbender) may have been the second shooter on the grassy knoll, accused of redirecting one of Lee Harvey Oswald's bullet to ensure a fatal wound.

'X-Men Days of Future Past' - Magneto at Kennedy assassination

But did Magneto actually redirect the bullet, or was the real culprit Mystique? In the section of the website covering his trial, Eric Lensherr is said to have proven the existence of mutant powers for the first time by bending a metal crowbar with his mind, after which he said, "I did not shoot your president. But I know who did, and you will never find her. She has a way of hiding in plain sight."

While the X-Men films have always worked as an allegory for social segregation and prejudice, it's unusual to see one so closely tied with events from a real-world timeline, and comparisons to Zack Snyder's 2009 adaptation of Watchmen (in which JFK is assassinated by the Comedian) are sure to follow. It's unclear how much of this particular plot point will be shown in the movie, since the photograph used is actually of Lee Harvey Oswald, rather than an actor portraying him.

The Bent Bullet website is rich with plot hints and details, including a 3D tour of Magneto's underground cell that was briefly shown being smashed open in the trailer for X-Men: Days of Future Past, and which was (surprise, surprise) designed by Trask Industries. Like all good viral marketing sites, it raises a lot more questions than it answers, such as why any mutant would want to murder a president who was about to give a speech promoting mutant rights. Was the Brotherhood of Mutants trying to stir up a war, or was Magneto framed?

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X-Men: Days of Future Past will be out in theaters on May 23rd, 2014.

Source: The Bent Bullet