X-tremely good news for X-Men fans as three new cast members have been added to the ever growing list of mutants ready to do battle in X-Men: Days Of Future Past. Anna Paquin, Ellen Page, and Shawn Ashmore return as Rogue, Kitty “Shadowcat” Pryde and Bobby “Iceman” Drake respectively. The trio were last seen in Brett Ratner’s X-Men: The Last Stand and will be a popular inclusion to Bryan Singer’s latest instalment of the franchise.
Kitty Pryde is especially interesting to fans of the comic book, as the original story revolved around her as the main protagonist. Although played by Page, herself an up an coming future A-list star, Kitty’s role will probably not be as prominant as it was in the comic book but will be more of a supporting role for the stars of the franchise.
The film is a first for the franchise as it crosses over with all six previous X-Men films and tackles the tricky arc of time travel. The story centres around an alternate fate for mutantkind after a senator’s assassination alters the timeline. The dystopian future sees mutantkind hunted to near extinction by giant robot Sentinels. Although it’s unclear exactly what role the three characters will play in the story they will most likely be based alongside Patrick Stewart’s Charles Xavier, Ian McKellen’s Magneto and Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine as they battle in the present. The main characters of the film are likely to be James McAvoy’s and Michael Fassbender’s younger versions of Xavier and Magneto from X-Men: First Class, following on from Matthew Vaughn’s reboot. Vaughn’s 1960s vision will still be present as he and co-writer Jane Goldman are on board as writers alongside Simon Kinberg, writer of Last Stand and Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes. Vaughn is also taking the role of producer.
Rogue, Kitty Pryde and Iceman are expected to join other returning favourites such as Jennifer Lawrence’s Mystique, Nicholas Hault’s the beast and rumoured inclusion of Halle Berry’s Storm. Days of Future Past is due for release in July 2014.
Sources: G4TV.com, SuperHeroHype.com