Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen done with X-Men?

Sad news: Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen might be done with X-Men. Since the pair returned to X-Men: Days of Future Past it was assumed we might see another appearance from the original Professor X and Magneto in X-Men: Apocalypse. However, Patrick Stewart stated in a recent interview that due to the timeline of the film it didn't seem like they would be returning.

Seeing that Apocalypse is looking at casting younger versions of characters such as Cyclops and Jean Grey this isn't necessarily a surprise. We will see James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, and most likely Nicholas Hoult return for Apocalypse and I'm not sure how much time travel/parallel universe stuff it will have. Rumor had it in the past week or so that Tye Sheridan was testing for Cyclops and Saoirse Ronan and Sophie Turner were testing for Jean. There was even a rumor that Chloe Grace Moretz might enter the project as well. The point? I don't know if there will be much use for the original cast in this film or any future films.

Maybe it's time McKellen and Stewart move on from the X-Men universe.

X-Men: Days of Future Past - Review

In the future, mutant exterminating machines called Sentinels are sent to destroy the mutant race. A small group of survivors send one of their own back into the past to help destroy the future in X-Men: Days of Future Past.



I'm going to just go right into this and say this movie disappointed the hell out of me. I had very high expectations given how great X-Men: First Class was. I have to say I enjoyed First Class a lot more than Days of Future Past.
It has a great start bringing us into the future and re-introducing us to mutants we already know and it brought us into the past very well, but it soon became really jumbled together and it flipped back and forth way too freely. I have quite a few problems with this movie...

1. Character development was seriously lacking in this installment. There were way too many mutants that needed explanation and way too many with explanation of things we already knew. For example, there was no need to constantly explain what happened to Wolverine. He is probably the most developed and most utilized character of the X-Men franchise so far. He was a main character in the first three films and has two solo films. We know what happens to him and we don't need it explained to us all the fucking time.

2. Overhyped characters that were fairly irrelevant at the end of the day. The biggest offenders here were Bishop and Quicksilver. These two characters were hyped up at an alarming rate, especially Quicksilver, and they each failed to bring anything major. Bishop turned out to just be a surviving mutant battling Sentinels in the future. He had no explanation, no character development, and I don't think his name was said more than once.
Quicksilver was approached in the past simply because Wolverine said he knew him in the future. Again, no explanation other than the fact that he was fast. He has like 10min of total screentime and was one of the most hyped characters in the promos. Not to mention the Carl's Jr. commercial.

3. Despite being the main villain, Mystique was overshadowed heavily by both Trask and Magneto. Simple as that.

4. Not enough Sentinel action in the 70's. Actually, there wasn't enough action in the 70's at all. It was mostly Charles complaining and Wolverine struggling.

5. The time jumping got to be confusing. In the end, they focused more on the future than in the past and that was a huge mistake. The storyline we were invested in was not the mutants in the future. It was in the attempt to stop the Sentinels from being created. That was why Wolverine was sent back to begin with!

6. The way the mutants from First Class were utilized was stupid. Angel, Azazel, and Havok were completely wasted and would have been better off not being mentioned at all.



I think I just have to stop now. I am not saying I hated Days of Future Past because I didn't, but I did not love it like I thought I was going to. Definitely not the way I love First Class. There were things I enjoyed, but unfortunately they are a bit overshadowed by the bad. Nice try Bryan Singer, but Matthew Vaughn did a better job.

Days of Future Past trailer to premiere October 29th

We now have word, along with some first footage, that the first trailer for X-Men: Days of Future Past will premiere next week on October 29th. This comes the same day we received a first trailer for fellow Marvel film, Captain America: The Winter Soldier (you can view it here).

X-Men: Days of Future Past follows Wolverine as his consciousness is sent back to 1973 to help Professor X, Magneto, and the rest of the X-Men stop the rise of the Sentinels, giant robots who are programmed to eliminate mutants.
Seeing that this serves as both a sequel and prequel to an extent, we will be seeing a lot of familiar characters portrayed by the same actors we have seen before. Returning actors for Days of Future Past include Anna Paquin, Halle Berry, Ian McKellan, Patrick Stewart, Shawn Ashmore, and Ellen Page along with those returning from X-Men: First Class. We also have new cast members like Peter Dinklage and Omar Sy. Basically, Days of Future Past is sure to be interesting.

And like I said, there is some minor footage you can watch right now. Apparently it is the small amount that was shown at Comic-Con in July. You can watch it at the X-Men Movies Instagram.

Black Widow a huge part of The Avengers 2

It appears that Joss Whedon is trying to make up for lost screen time.

After revealing that Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) was going to have a bigger role in The Avengers: Age of Ultron, Whedon also elaborated on how Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) will be a big part of the sequel as well. This comes after some criticism came after the two characters had very low screen time compared to the other heroes despite the fact that Black Widow had more screen time than both Thor and Hulk in The Avengers.
Hawkeye brought in a whopping 12:44 and Black Widow had 33:35. She brought in just 4min less screen time than Iron Man and Captain America and is a main focus in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, so I don't know how she can be an even bigger part in The Avengers: Age of Ultron unless she surpasses the other heroes and becomes the absolute main character.

Also added for Age of Ultron are Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, the twin children of Magneto. Whedon expressed his fun with Black Widow due to the fact that she is just a spy who doesn't have the same morality the others possess.

X-Men: Days of Future Past images emerge

We have some post-CC news for X-Men: Days of Future Past. We now have an official logo along with two character posters for Magneto and Professor X.

I think these look great and it definitely boosted my excitement level a bit.

SDCC: X-Men: Days of Future Past wows at Comic-Con

Apparently this is the panel that got the first standing ovation in Hall H.

Along with The Wolverine and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, 20th Century Fox brought X-Men: Days of Future Past to Comic-Con and had a gigantic panel consisting of old and new X-Men actors. In attendance was Anna Paquin, Ellen Page, Halle Berry, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Evan Peters, Shawn Ashmore, Hugh Jackman, Peter Dinklage, Nicholas Hoult, Omar Sy, Ian McKellan, Patrick Stewart, writer Simon Kinberg, and producers Lauren Shuler Donner and Hutch Parker. Also joining was director Bryan Singer.

Here is a nice group shot of everyone:

What we learned from the panel is limited but enough:

1. Days of Future Past is in 3D.
2. A majority of the effects are still unfinished, but there was some footage screened. A description is listed below.
3. Omar Sy is indeed playing Bishop.
4. Deadpool is not in Days of Future Past at all, so we can all hang our heads in disappointment.


Here is a description of the footage screened from Collider:

"So many mutants but the core is that we see Xavier, Magneto, Storm, and Wolverine in the future.  Xavier says they need to send Logan’s mind back to his younger body and convince young Xavier and young Magneto to avert the disastrous future.  In the future, we see the cast members from the first three movies in dark, futuristic-looking clothing but not cheesy.  It’s austere, and so is the landscape, not the ragged, post-apocalypse from the comics.

When Wolverine goes back, we see the First Class members, and young Xavier looks absolutely beaten and tired.  We then go through a big montage of almost all the characters.  Memorable moments include Beast trying to drown young Magneto, and a young Magneto using his power to drag a helpless Mystique towards him.  The trailer finishes out with young Xavier shouting, 'I don’t want your future!'  We then go to a two-shot with young Xavier and old Xavier facing each other.  Old Xavier tells his younger self, 'Please.  We need you to hope again.'"



In other words... X-Men: Days of Future Past looks like it will surpass First Class and be pretty damn cool. 

First look at Jennifer Lawrence for X-Men: Days of Future Past

Pretty self explanatory.

Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch confirmed for Avengers 2

Joss Whedon (The Avengers) has confirmed that the brother-sister team that will be included in The Avengers 2 will indeed be Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch.

There was a potential legal issue with these characters as they are intertwined with X-Men seeing as they are both mutants and their father is Magneto. The concern was since Fox owns X-Men they could potentially own these characters as well. However, Whedon assured everyone that the characters are available for them to use and they intend to do so.

If you know nothing about Quicksilver or Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver has a power of super speed. Scarlet Witch can cast hexes which can alter probability, alter reality, and chaos magic. The siblings also have several years worth of story arcs so it isn't possible to really predict exactly which arc Whedon is targeting for The Avengers 2. There is also a rumor that Saoirse Ronan is in the running (aka, the prototype) for Scarlet Witch, but that is pretty preliminary.

X-Men: Days of Future Past gets casting confirmations

Director Bryan Singer confirmed via Twitter that Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen have been confirmed for X-Men: Days of Future Past to reprise their roles as older versions of Professor X and Magneto. Also confirmed to return are James McAvoy (Professor X), Michael Fassbender (Magneto), Jennifer Lawrence (Mystique), and Nicholas Hoult (Beast).

X-Men sequel finally has a title

Up until now the sequel for X-Men: First Class has been promptly referred to as X-Men: First Class 2. We now have the official title for the film along with some minor updates. The official title is X-Men: Days of Future Past, Matthew Vaughn is for sure returning to direct, and it is possible that this film will serve as somewhat of a crossover between films. X-Men and X2 director Bryan Singer suggests that it could follow the comic arc that takes the mutants into the 1980's.

Matthew Vaughn will return for X-Men sequel

This was speculated and rumored but now it is official. 20th Century Fox has hired Matthew Vaughn to direct a sequel to his 2011 film, X-Men: First Class. Also returning are James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/jan/31/matthew-vaughn-x-men-first-class?newsfeed=true


I'm curious as to how they will do this exactly. I am really excited that it's happening because I loved X-Men: First Class so much, but seeing that we already have five X-Men movies (X-Men, X-2, X-Men: The Last Stand, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and X-Men: First Class) somewhere there will be a wire that gets crossed or cut completely. That is unless they are going to completely ignore what happened with X-Men 1-3 which would be fine with me, minus the first. Then again, X-Men: First Class already crossed some wires and confused things a bit (specifically with Alex Summers and Beast) so maybe it really doesn't matter that much. First Class seemed to follow with X-Men Origins: Wolverine more than the first three movies.
Which speaking of Wolverine... he might have to be in the First Class sequel, right? Depending on what the timeline is that might work.

Bring it on, Mr. Vaughn.