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Why X-Men Days of Future Past Will To The X-Men Film Franchise What The Avengers Is To The Marvel Cinematic Universe

As well as currently being the third highest grossing film of all time, The Avengers was also a fan’s dream come true because it united our most beloved characters on the big screen in an epic journey to save the world without descending into typical mega-budget blockbuster stupidity. On the other hand, X-Men has been one of Marvel’s most successful non-MCU franchises, and the upcoming X-Men: Days of Future Past will serve as the franchises equivalent to The Avengers. After all, it will feature most of the characters in the franchise together in one film, and will be the biggest, boldest entry to date.

The most notable thing about the film is that it will feature a large ensemble cast consisting of, well, just about everyone who’s ever been in an X-Men movie in the past. In other words, it will be a dream come true as the alumni of the original series and the stars of First Class share the screen. How they are going to fit this many characters into one film remains to be seem, but if The Avengers was anything to go by, it has been proven more then possible to create a superhero epic that allows every hero to have a reasonable amount of screen time and character development. Having said that, however, Days of Future Past’s character rooster is even bigger then that of The Avengers. Wolverine, Storm, Beast, Magneto, Charles Xavier, Mystique, and Bishop, are just a few of the mutants that will be appearing in the film, but it will no doubt follow Whedon’s example and allow each character to be fully fleshed out.

But what good will all these characters be without a great cast? Days of Future Past certainly has no shortage of star power. Oscar winners Halle Berry, Jennifer Lawrence and Anna Paquin, Oscar nominees Hugh Jackman, Ellen Page and Ian Mckellen, and acclaimed actors Michael Fassbender, Patrick Stewart, James Macavoy and Nicholas Hoult to name but a few. Peter Dinklage, best known for his Golden Globe winning performance as Tyrion in Game of Thrones, has also been officially confirmed as villain Bolivar Trask.

And of course, with Days of Future Past hopefully being the definitive film in the X-Men saga, Bryan Singer, director of the first two films and producer of X-Men: First Class, returns. Which was expected, really. After all, who else could successfully helm such an ambitious and gigantic film than the man who originally bought the series to life? Singer’s approach was unique, fresh and bold, with the first two X-Men films being some of the finest superhero films in history. It’s also great to see Singer back in action again after Jack the Giant Slayer became the biggest box office flop of 2013, and Days of Future Past will make up for that by (hopefully) becoming the highest grossing X-Men film to date.

The film will be an adaptation of The Days of Future Past comic book by Chris Claremont, John Bryne and Terry Austin, and will be about the X-Men trying to prevent a dystopian future where mutants are prosecuted and sent to concentration camps. The present versions of the characters will warn the younger versions introduced in First Class of the possibility of this future, thus linking the films.

What makes this story so intriguing is that nothing like this has every been attempted in a superhero film before. The X-Men films are known for the fact that they tackle mature and relevant subject matter, with the fact that the first film opened in a World War II prison camp showing how the films would not shy away from facing harrowing real life events. With the possible future of Days of Future Past depicting mutants being forcefully separated from the rest of society being a frightening metaphor for the indolence that still exists in the world today, and the mutants having to fight for a better tomorrow, it looks like Days of Future Past will go places no superhero film has ever gone to before.

But it looks like the complicated story is in good hands, as the film’s screenplay is written by Matthew Vaughn, Jane Goldman and Simon Kinberg, with Vaugh and Kinberg also producing. Kinberg previously wrote Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes and Mr. & Mrs. Smith, while Vaughn and Goldman are, of course, the incredible writer and director duo who gave us X-Men: First Class.

At Comic-Con, a brief trailer was shown which was said to show Wolverine travelling back in time to warn a younger Professor X and Magneto that they need to prevent the terrible future of mutant kind, followed by a montage of all the prominent characters appearing in the film. After that, there was a session where Singer said that he enjoyed making such a large ensemble film, although finding a schedule for all the actors to be in the film at one was a “nightmare”, followed by the cast talking about the roles that their character will have in the film.

The X-Men film franchise has had something of a rocky path as far as quality is concerned. For the sheer brilliance of the first two films and First Class, we get The Last Stand and Origins. The Wolverine has so far been getting positive reviews, so it will likely fall into the first category. And Days of Future Past, with its incredible cast and characters, a story unlike anything seen before in a superhero movie, and Bryan Singer returning to direct, the film will no doubt be the film that the fans have been waiting for.

And don’t forget to get your first glimpse of the film during the end credits of The Wolverine!

Are you looking forward to Days of Future Past? Think the big cast will be too much to handle or excited for an onslaught of cameos? Sound off in the comments!

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Davidde Gelmini