X-Men: Days of Future Past

X-Men: Days of Future Past is the sequel to both The Wolverine and X-Men: First Class that is to be released on May 23rd, 2014. It is the seventh film in the X-Men film franchise.

Plot
The official synopses read "The ultimate X-Men ensemble fights a war for the survival of the species across two time periods in X-Men: Days of Future Past. The beloved characters from the original "X-Men" film trilogy join forces with their younger selves from "X-Men: First Class", in an epic battle that must change the past - to save our future".

Future

 * Patrick Stewart as Charles Xavier/Professor X
 * Hugh Jackman as Logan/Wolverine
 * Ian McKellen as Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto
 * Halle Berry as Ororo Munroe/Storm
 * Ellen Page as Kitty Pryde
 * Shawn Ashmore as Bobby Drake/Iceman
 * Daniel Cudmore as Peter Rasputin/Colossus
 * Omar Sy as Lucas Bishop/Bishop
 * Booboo Stewart as James Proudstar/Warpath
 * Fan Bingbing as Clarice Ferguson/Blink
 * Adan Canto as Roberto DaCosta/Sunspot
 * Anna Paquin as Marie D'Ancanto/Rogue
 * Kelsey Grammer as Hank McCoy/Beast

Past

 * James McAvoy as Charles Xavier/Professor X
 * Michael Fassbender as Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto
 * Jennifer Lawrence as Raven Darkholme/Mystique
 * Nicholas Hoult as Hank McCoy/Beast
 * Peter Dinklage as Bolivar Trask
 * Evan Peters as Pietro Maximoff/Quicksilver
 * Josh Helman as William Stryker, Jr.
 * Lucas Till as Alex Summers/Havok
 * Evan Jonigkeit as Mortimer Toynbee/Toad
 * Gregg Lowe as Eric Gitter/Ink
 * Jaa Smith-Johnson as Mutant Soldier

Production History
In 2010, 20th Century Fox announced that it envisioned X-Men: First Class as the first leg of a second X-Men trilogy .In 2011, X-Men: First Class director Matthew Vaughn speculated that a sequel could be set "in the latter part of the [1960s] where you’ve got The Stones, The Beatles, Flower Power." Producer Lauren Shuler Donner has said that the sequel may be set in the 1970s. Writer and executive producer Bryan Singer has stated that it could be set around the Civil rights movement or the Vietnam War, and that Wolverine could once again be featured. Actor James McAvoy expressed interest in seeing Charles Xavier get “really messed up” in the sequel and speculated that a third film could show his transition into a character closer to the one played by Patrick Stewart in the original trilogy. Actor Michael Fassbender has said that he is "very excited" about the possibility of playing Magneto in a sequel. Actress Jennifer Lawrence expressed interest in reprising her role as Mystique in a sequel. Actress Rose Byrne revealed that she had signed on to play Moira MacTaggert in two more films in the X-Men franchise. Actor Álex González has also said that he has signed on to play Riptide in two more films.Actress January Jones has said that she would love play Emma Frost in another film. Actor Lucas Till has said that he would like to reprise the role of Havok. Actor Jason Flemyng has expressed interest in playing Azazel again, and exploring the origins of Nightcrawler. Actor Hugh Jackman has said that he would like to return as Wolverine. On 30 January 2012, Director Matthew Vaughn was confirmed to return along with producer Bryan Singer and writer Simon Kinberg.In late September Patrick Stewart heavily implied that he wouldreturn for this film. In early October actress Famke Janssen expressed the possibility of her return as the Phoenix.On 13 February 2012, Bryan Singer stated he had yet to decide whether he would include Nightcrawler among the cast. Actor Alan Cumming has gone on record saying he would be open to reprise the character if asked.

Trivia

 * Matthew Vaughn was supposed to return to direct this movie but he decided to decline. Bryan Singer, the director of the first two X-Men films and a producer, was hired to direct.
 * Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen were performing in a touring production of "Waiting for Godot" when Bryan Singer approached the actors about reprising their respective roles as Professor X and Magneto. McKellen has said both men were utterly shocked, as they thought to have passed the roles on to James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender, and would never play the characters again. Both Stewart and McKellen were delighted to return to two of their most popular roles, and to work with the younger actors playing the same characters as well.
 * The "Days of Future Past" storyline was selected as this film's plot in part because it would allow the filmmakers to reconcile the continuity dissonance between "X-Men: First Class" and the original "X-Men" film series. The time travel element also allowed actors from the original series to appear in character once again, and remove certain elements from the original series continuity (in particular, the events of "X-Men: The Last Stand") that would allow the original series to continue in sequel films, as well as the new time line as set in "First Class."
 * Present day Beast and Angel will have been killed before the start of the film, thus explaining why they are the only X-Men not to carry over from the Last Stand.
 * The film is influenced by the "X-Men" comics 'Days of Future Past' (1981) and 'All-New X-Men' (2012), both of which involve time-traveling mutants who seek to change history for the better.
 * When Matthew Vaughn was going to direct, he was going to make the film a direct sequel to "X-Men: First Class" and have it set in the 1970s. Early ideas included an opening with the Kennedy assassination being caused by Magneto, and mutant encounters set in the Civil rights movement/the Vietnam War. When Singer took over, he integrated these concepts into a viral marketing campaign to set up the action of the film. In this alternate history, Magento is arrested and imprisoned for the assassination of Kennedy, but maintains his innocence. The "Bent Bullet" Theory (a reference to the real life "Magic Bullet" Theory criticized by conspiracy theorists) holds that the Warren Commission determined that Magento manipulated Lee Harvey Oswald's bullets to kill the President in retribution for the murder of the mutants Azazel and Tempest (played by Jason Flemyng and Zoe Kravitz in X-Men: First Class (2011) respectively) by the CIA. Conspiracy theorists, based on Magneto's testimony, insist however that Magneto had tried to prevent the murder of Kennedy, and that the true shooter was not Oswald, but Mystique in disguise who, with the help of Emma Frost (played by January Jones in First Class) framed Magneto, and manipulated Jack Ruby into later murdering Oswald. The theory also posits that Mystique offered to double as Kennedy in an attempt to grab power, all of which backfired horribly, leading to anti-mutant hostilities.
 * According to Bryan Singer, he had a two-hour discussion with James Cameron, director of the time-travel films The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day, about how to make the time-travel concept feasible and workable within the film.
 * Alan Cumming declined to reprise his role as Nightcrawler from X2 due to the heavy make-up demands for the character.
 * The filmmakers selected the "Days of Future Past" storyline because it would allow the filmmakers to reconcile any continuity dissonances within the "X-Men" film series. The time-travel element also allowed actors from the original film series and the intended reboot that was X-Men: First Class (2011) to appear in the same film together.
 * Unlike most of the actors who've appeared throughout the X-Men franchise, January Jones was not asked to reprise the role she originated in X-Men: First Class.
 * Due to Halle Berry's pregnancy, Storm won't fly or have any fighting scenes in the film.
 * Including his cameo in X-Men: First Class, this will be Hugh Jackman's seventh portrayal of Logan/Wolverine, raising his own record for the most times a comic book character has been played by the same actor in theatrical films. He will also be the only actor to appear in the entire X-Men film series.
 * This is the sixth time that Patrick Stewart has appeared in an X-Men film; Stewart had made an uncredited appearance in X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), and appeared in The Wolverine (2013)'s credits scene.
 * Jason Flemyng was originally set to reprise his role as Azazel when Matthew Vaughn was still set to direct. When Vaughn left, the storyline was dropped in favor of the time travel/crossover storyline, and Azazel's role cut from the script to accommodate characters from the original "X-Men" film series.
 * John Ottman is the first composer to score more than one movie of the series.
 * This is the fourth X-Men film to be based on a Chris Claremont "X-Men" comic:
 * X-Men 2 (2003) was adapted from 'God Loves, Man Kills'
 * X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) was based on 'The Dark Phoenix Saga'
 * The Wolverine (2013) was based on his comic of the same title.
 * The original story on which this film is based involved time travel from the year 2013, the same year in which filming began.
 * Jamie Campbell Bower and Nico Tortorella auditioned for the role of Quicksilver.
 * The filmmakers selected the Days of Future Past storyline because it would allow the filmmakers to reconcile any continuity dissonances within the "X-Men" film series. The time-travel element also allowed actors from the original film series and the intended reboot that was X-Men: First Class (2011) to appear in the same film together.
 * The addition of Evan Peters as Pietro Maximoff/Quicksilver to the cast sparked wide discussion over the direction of the character who is also slated to appear in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Quicksilver had been discussed previously as a potential character in both X-Men: The Last Stand and The Avengers, but legal complexities over the license to the character resulted in his omission from both films. However, in May 2013 both Marvel and Fox Studios announced a resolution to the previous legal issues, and that Quicksilver would appear in this film as well as an Avengers sequel, though under certain parameters: no reference to Quicksilver's membership in the Avengers can be made in an "X-Men" film, and no allusion to his relations to the X-Men or Magneto (the character's father) can be made in an "Avengers" film; the rights agreement between Fox and Marvel even goes so far as to stipulate the character cannot be referred to as a "mutant" in any Marvel film. Additionally, the day after the announcement of Peters's casting, Marvel and Fox entered into a legal standoff over provisions of the rights agreement for the character, including the issue of whether Peters would be allowed to portray Quicksilver in any other film outside the "X-Men" franchise, possibly necessitating a second actor to play Quicksilver in any Marvel film, resulting in two different versions of the same character appearing in two competing film series. Ultimately, Fox and Marvel decided to cast different actors in the part for the "X-Men" and "Avengers" films, with Aaron Taylor-Johnson taking on the role in the latter sequel, thus preventing any connection between the two franchises and keeping the X-Men confined to a separate universe from those of the Marvel cinematic universe.
 * Patrick Stewart returns to the role of Professor Charles Xavier despite the character's apparent death in X-Men: The Last Stand. Director Bryan Singer has said that this discontinuity will be addressed in the film, as well as the absence of Cyclops (James Marsden) and Jean Grey (Famke Janssen), both of whom were thought dead, though Singer has suggested otherwise.
 * Chris Claremont, the writer of the original 'Days of Future Past' comic, was brought on as a consultant.
 * Peters described Quicksilver as someone who "talks quick, moves quick. Everything else is very slow compared to him, it's like he's always at the ATM waiting for the dude in front of him to finish."
 * A life-size model of a Sentinel robot was constructed for filming.
 * Bryan Singer filmed the mutant Quicksilver's scenes in a special format of 3600 frames per second. This was done to showcase Quicksilver's speed ability: 3600 fps is 150 times slower than normal film (which is at 24 fps), so Quicksilver will be seen moving to 150 times as fast as normal.
 * The release of the teaser trailer for this film ignited such interest, director Bryan Singer made the unprecedented move of recording an actual commentary track to it the following day, explaining the significance of certain scenes and offering more insight into what to expect from the film.
 * The four main female X-Men in the principal cast (Halle Berry, Jennifer Lawrence, Ellen Page, and Anna Paquin) are all Academy Award nominees. The six principle male cast members (Hugh Jackman, Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart and Peter Dinklage) are all Golden Globe nominees (Jackman and McKellen are also Academy Award nominees).
 * John Myhre hid X-symbols in the sets he designed for the film.
 * Bryan Singer based Boliver Trask on Adolf Hitler: "As Hitler used the Jews as a scapegoat to bond the darker parts of Europe, he's doing the same thing with mutants. But he wasn't a six foot, perfect blond Aryan - he was a short, funny looking fellow!"
 * Bryan Singer based the time travel in the film on string theory: "Until an object is observed, it hasn't really happened yet. The time-traveller whose consciousness travels through time I call The Observer, and until the Observer returns to where he travelled from, the result hasn't occurred yet. So he can muck about in the past and it isn't until he snaps back that the new future is set. As a result, we have parallel action, and there's underlying tension because there's always that threat Wolverine's consciousness could return to the future and leave the world in an even darker place."
 * According to Bryan Singer, he could only get the film started with confidence once Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen agreed to return.
 * Bryan Singer and Peter Dinklage describe Boliver Trask as a peace-lover: "He sees the advent of the mutants as a way to unite people: when modern men came along it meant extinction for the Neanderthal, and now humans are the Neanderthal, so this fight is for our survival as a species. He sees what he's doing as a good thing - his ambition is definitely blind. He's strove all his life for a certain respect and attention."
 * This is the sixth time that Patrick Stewart has appeared in an X-Men film; Stewart had made an uncredited appearance in X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), and appeared in The Wolverine (2013)'s credits scene.
 * Shooting went on under the working title "Hello Kitty." This refers to X-Men member Kitty Pryde.
 * A life-size model of a 1973 Sentinel robot was constructed for filming.
 * A scene that was cut from X-Men: First Class (2011) where Xavier mentally controls a man to believe Magneto is a transvestite, appears in this film.
 * The release of the teaser trailer for this film ignited such interest, director Bryan Singer made the unprecedented move of recording an actual commentary track to it the following day, explaining the significance of certain scenes and offering more insight into what to expect from the film.
 * Anna Paquin filmed scenes as Rogue and, though heavily featured in the trailers and advertising, her scenes were cut from the final film for pacing reasons. Bryan Singer later announced they her sequence will appear on the DVD.
 * For her role as Mystique, Jennifer Lawrence wore a special bodysuit. She had previously worn full-body prosthetics in X-Men: First Class (2011) but found that too uncomfortable.
 * According to Peter Dinklage, Bryan Singer picked him to play Boliver Trask because of his height: "With my dwarfism, I'm a bit of a mutant. I can't move metal or anything, but I thought of it as self-loathing. Deep down, Trask is quite sensitive about that aspect of himself."
 * This is the fourth adaptation of Chris Claremont's "Days of Future Past" comic. It had previously been adapted for X-Men (1992), Wolverine and the X-Men (2008) and The Super Hero Squad Show (2009).
 * Shooting went on under the working title "Hello Kitty." This refers to X-Men member Kitty Pryde.
 * Chris Claremont, the writer of the original 'Days of Future Past' comic, was brought on as a consultant.
 * Production designer John Myhre described the future Sentinels as having evolved from machines into biomechanical weapons: "They are almost made up of magnetic plates slapped over one another, imagining that the plates could contract or grow, so the Sentinel can be skinny to get through a small space or the plates can open up to become a bigger shape. They have become virtually unstoppable - the ultimate version that can actually, in principle, stop the X-Men."
 * Kelsey Grammer was going to return as the elder Beast, but had to decline due to scheduling conflicts with Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014). However he did film a cameo for the film during post-production.
 * Chris Claremont, the writer of the original 'Days of Future Past' comic, was brought on as a consultant.
 * Bryan Singer is a big fan of Peter Dinklage and his show Game of Thrones (2011). Dinklage's role of Tyrion Lannister inspired Singer to cast Dinklage as Trask.
 * During Magneto's fight with the presidential guards, there is a painting behind him. This painting is "Liberty Leading the People", a French painting made to commemorate the 1830 French Revolution, and a symbol of rebellion.
 * Cameo
 * Newton Thomas Sigel: a disguise Mystique takes to escape from a scene. Sigel is the cinematographer for all the Bryan Singer-directed X-Men films.
 * Chris Claremont: A bystander at a fight scene.
 * Production designer John Myhre described the future Sentinels as having evolved from machines into biomechanical weapons: "They are almost made up of magnetic plates slapped over one another, imagining that the plates could contract or grow, so the Sentinel can be skinny to get through a small space or the plates can open up to become a bigger shape. They have become virtually unstoppable - the ultimate version that can actually, in principle, stop the X-Men."
 * This is the fourth adaptation of Chris Claremont's "Days of Future Past" comic. It had previously been adapted for X-Men (1992) (a literal adaptation), Wolverine and the X-Men (2008) and The Super Hero Squad Show (2009).
 * According to Simon Kinberg, this film is influenced by the time-travel films The Time Machine (1960), The Terminator (1984), Back to the Future (1985) and Looper (2012).
 * Originally Josh Helman was going to be cast as a young Cain Marko/Juggernaut. But Juggernaut was written out of the film, and Helman was offered the role of a young William Styker.
 * This is the fourth adaptation of Chris Claremont's "Days of Future Past" comic. It had previously been adapted for X-Men (1992) (a literal adaptation), Wolverine and the X-Men (2008) and The Super Hero Squad Show (2009).
 * Bishop, like in the comics, is an actual time-traveler and aware of the changes to the timeline. This refers to the "Age of Apocalypse" comic, where he was the only one who could stop Apocalypse from changing history. This also sets up Apocalypse as an X-Men film antagonist.
 * Though Cyclops (James Marsden) and Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) do not appear in this film, director Bryan Singer has assured fans that their absence will be addressed.
 * Bryan Singer based the time travel in the film on string theory: "Until an object is observed, it hasn't really happened yet. The time-traveller whose consciousness travels through time I call The Observer, and until the Observer returns to where he travelled from, the result hasn't occurred yet. So he can muck about in the past and it isn't until he snaps back that the new future is set. As a result, we have parallel action, and there's underlying tension because there's always that threat Wolverine's consciousness could return to the future and leave the world in an even darker place."
 * According to Simon Kinberg, this film unites ALL the future mutants: "It's this dysfunctional family and these desperate people who are outcasts in their own lives, and they come together, and that's not as emotionally satisfying as an outcast on their own."
 * The bullet wounds that appear on Wolverine's chest on his arrival to the 1970s is in the form of the Big Dipper. This is a homage to "Hokuto no Ken", whose protagonist Kenshiro has the same scar pattern on his chest.
 * In the "Days of Future Past" comic it was Shadowcat who went back in time; in the film it's Wolverine. The filmmakers decided an immortal, ageless character would be more suitable for time travel.
 * In the original comic miniseries upon which this film is based, Mystique tries to assassinate Senator Robert Kelly (played by 'Bruce Davison' in X-Men) leading to the genesis of the Sentinel program. Actress 'Jennifer Lawrence' has said Mystique remains the assassin, though her target is now Richard Nixon.
 * Bryan Singer based the time travel in the film on string theory: "Until an object is observed, it hasn't really happened yet. The time-traveller whose consciousness travels through time I call The Observer, and until the Observer returns to where he travelled from, the result hasn't occurred yet. So he can muck about in the past and it isn't until he snaps back that the new future is set. As a result, we have parallel action, and there's underlying tension because there's always that threat Wolverine's consciousness could return to the future and leave the world in an even darker place."
 * The absence of the Hellfire Club and Banshee from all films after First Class is partially explained in a Viral Marketing and a clip; Azazel and Angel/Tempest were killed by operatives of Project WideAwake a year after the events of First Class, Emma Frost and Banshee were revealed to be dead (although the cause was not yet revealed), and Riptide's fate has not yet been revealed.