In an interview with IGN.com, producer Bryan Singer confirmed a rumor that was floating around about the X-Men: First Class sequel. The sequel will be titled X-Men: Days of Future Past and will borrow plot elements from that legendary X-Men comic book story arc.
“Days of Future Past” is arguably, second only to “The Dark Phoenix Saga,” the best storyline in X-Men history. Created by Chris Claremont and John Byrne in Uncanny X-Men #141 & 142, the arc tells of a middle-aged Kitty Pryde from a dystopian future who is living under martial law overseen by mutant hunting robots called Sentinels. The Sentinels were built after an influential anti-mutant Senator by the name of Robert Kelly was assassinated by the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. The Sentinels eventually turned on their creators, slaughtered all superhuman opposition (including non-mutants such as Captain America), and round up all the surviving mutants, putting them in concentration camps. Pryde was sent back in time and possessed her younger self in an effort to foil the assassination and avoid her horrible future.
Obviously, there will have to be some changes in the story to bring it to the screen. Senator Robert Kelly was a character in the first X-Men film (played by Bruce Davidson) and met his untimely death there. Kitty Pryde was also featured in that X-Men trilogy, most recently by Ellen Page. Neither character was old enough to be around in the 1960s, the era X-Men: First Class is set.
There have been numerous hints about bring characters from the original trilogy into this film to create a stronger link between the two franchises, and the plot of Days of the Future Past would provide an excellent opportunity to bring Storm, Iceman, Angel and Colossus back to the big screen. As for the time travelling X-Man, well, Wolverine has already been established as being alive and kicking in X-Men: First Class, and the character is quite popular with moviegoers. As for the assassination, well, hints also were dropped about the Kennedy assassination playing a role in the sequel. Could JFK replace Robert Kelly as the mutant’s target?
I guess we’ll have to wait and see. X-Men: Days of Future Past is scheduled to arrive on July 18, 2014.
