After Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan signed on to return as (older) Professor X and Magneto, respectively, for X-Men: Days of Future Past, it was a given that franchise poster boy Hugh Jackman would soon follow. Director Bryan Singer made that so and informed the world via Twitter, where he's been slowly dropping hints and teases of what fans should expect from the X-Men: First Class sequel.

While the likes of Famke Janssen and January Jones remain unsure of their return, Singer announced today that three more X-Men trilogy mutants will be back for Days of Future Past.

Thanks to this tweet, X-Men fans can look forward to seeing Iceman, Kitty Pryde/Shadowcat and Rogue back on the big screen. Hugh wasn't kidding when he teased an X-Men trilogy cast reunion.

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

— Bryan Singer (@BryanSinger) January 26, 2013

Did Singer just take a shot at Brett Ratner for killing off Cyclops and Phoenix? Is this a subtle hint that there's no chance of James Marsden returning? At least these black leather costumes won't be returning either:

X Men trilogy black leather costumes

It took three films for Bobby Drake (Ashmore) to actually become Iceman (just for a moment) and three films for Marie D'ancanto to not become Rogue. It's a safe bet that Anna Paquin's character will finally have some mutant powers (outside of temporarily absorbing them) this time around as she was vocal about not ever evolving to participate in the action while doing press for X-Men: The Last Stand.

As for Kitty Pryde, she was a must-include for fans of Marvel Comics since the Days of Future Past storyline revolves around her character. In the books, an aged Kitty Pryde is able to transfer her consciousness back to her younger self (in the present) in order to prevent the assassination of Senator Robert Kelly which began a war where the giant anti-mutant Sentinel robots scour the land, hunting down the X-Men and all other mutants.

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Since First Class took place in the '60s, it's possible that the 'present' in the film follows the younger X-Men led by James McAvoy's  Xavier and the 'future' is the original X-Men team who could be residing in an alternate timeline where some event in the '60s or '70s is the new cause for the mutant hysteria - due to some other anomaly in the timeline. Could this be used to introduce one of the fan-favorite time-travelling characters such as Bishop or Cable? Will Senator Robert Kelly be involved?

Singer aims to make sense of the continuity of the films while also broadening out the X-Men universe to compete with Marvel Studios' The Avengers, and it'll be interesting to see what comes of his ambitious ideas.

Who else would you like to see return for the next X-Men team-up?

The Wolverine hits theaters July 26, 2013. X-Men: Days of Future Past hits theaters on July 18th, 2014.

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Follow Rob on Twitter @rob_keyes for your X-Men questions (and answers).

Source: Bryan Singer