Home Entertainment X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST and THE WOLVERINE footage shown at Comic-Con

X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST and THE WOLVERINE footage shown at Comic-Con

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The Avengers weren’t the only time travelling superheroes hanging out in Hall H at Comic-Con on Saturday, as Fox hosted a panel for James Mangold’s upcoming The Wolverine and Bryan Singer’s X-Men: Days of Future Past, with not only the full cast for the latter (which includes Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine) in attendance, but also some amazing sounding footage shown for both films.

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The panel kicked off with Mangold and Jackman taking the stage, and showing off new footage from their film. It was sort of a sizzle reel of action beats, showing various moments of badassery including a scene where Wolverine pulls a katana from his chest after just killing the samurai owner of said sword, prompting somebody asking “What kind of monster are you?” and Logan’s reply: “I’m the Wolverine.”

It also looks like Logan is back to his foul mouthed ways, dropping an F-bomb much like he did in his cameo in X-Men: First Class. And that isn’t the only bit of darkness to the character we’ll see, as Jackman revealed that we’ll finally see the character’s “berserker rage in full”.

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After the footage screened, Jackman then proceeded to do one of the nicest things I can recall an actor at any of these panels ever doing, by calling Len Wein, creator of the Wolverine character, onto stage from where he had been sitting in the audience. He then shook his hand and personally thanked him for creating the character that has made Jackman’s career. A very cool and gracious moment, if you ask me.

Thereafter it was on to X-Men: Days of Future Past with Singer taking the stage and showing off the first trailer for the film. Here’s Slashfilm’s description of the footage:

The footage opens on an eye. Professor X’s eye to be exact.

“What’s the last thing you remember?” he asks in voiceover. (All quotes below are voiceover unless noted.)

A montage of several original characters: Shawn Ashmore as Ice Man, Ellen Page as Kitty Pride, Halle Berry as Storm. etc.

“I had a little glimpse into the past.”

Wolverine, dressed in a black outfit fitted with buckles, walks with older Professor X (Stewart) and older Magneto (McKellen), in similar attire. They appear to be in some kind of temple, with very rich colors.

“You’re going to have to do for me what I once did for you,” Xavier’s voice says. “You need me as well,” Magneto adds. “Side by side to end this war before it ever begins.”

The trio approaches what appears to be some kind of ritual table, followed by a montage of new characters including Omar Sy as Bishop. They appear to also be in this present/future time with the original characters, in similar black outfits.

“So I wake up in my younger body and then what?” Logan says. “Find me. Convince me of all of this,” Xavier explains.

We finally see the younger Xavier (McAvoy) sitting down with an ‘X’ of light on his head. He and his companions are all in ’70s clothes.

“It’s going to take the two of us,” Magneto says.

Now we see young Magneto (Fassbender) floating, doing some other possibly sinister stuff.

“Then where do I find you?” Logan asks. “On different paths,” old Magneto says. “Darker paths.”

We see some more shots from the ’70s, most of the new First Class characters living their own lives.

“Logan, lead me. Guide me. Be patient with me,” the older professor pleads. “Patience isn’t my strong suit,” responds Logan.

We see Logan with two lights on the side of his head and he screams. Hard cut.

The footage goes into a montage of many things. Some examples include a secret compartment under the Oval Office. More new characters. Trask (Peter Dinklage) presiding over a meeting. Lots of action scenes including Wolverine riddled with bullet holes, Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) crying, Mystique changing form and walking in a military uniform, Young Magneto floating, getting choked by Beast (Nicolas Hoult) and young Xavier blowing the dust off Cerebro.

Finally we see young Xavier touching Logan’s face and we hear his voice in voiceover, from a different scene.

“I don’t want your suffering,” Xavier screams. “I don’t want your future!”

The final shot is young Xavier encountering old Xavier, looking each other dead in the eye, and old Xavier says the following as voice over:

“Please. We need you to hope again”

Then the title card: “Days of Future Past.”

JoBlo adds that a number of the characters shown in the footage were in costumes drawn straight from the comics, like Anna Paquin’s Rogue now sporting the classic green and yellow outfit, while future Wolverine’s hair boasted the trademark white streaks.

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Soon after the footage screened, the entire principal cast for the film filed on stage fro some Q&A, including Ian McKellen (old Magneto), Michael Fassbender (young Magneto), Patrick Stewart (old Professor x), James McAvoy (young Professor X), Hugh Jackman (Wolverine), Jennifer Lawrence (Mystique), Nicholas Hoult (Beast), Peter Dinklage (Bolivar Trask), Halle Berry (Storm), Evan Peters (Quicksilver), Ellen Page (Kitty Pryde), Anna Paquin (Rogue), Shawn Ashmore (Iceman), Fan Bing-Bing (Blink) and Boo Boo Stewart (Warpath).

Singer revealed that despite the logistical nightmare of working with such a large cast, he likes doing “ensemble films”, starting back with The Usual Suspects.

Anna Paquin revealed that it was “incredible” to play Rogue again after more than decade as she only 17 years old when she was initially cast in the role.

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Speaking of youngsters wearing the spandex, Evan Peters, the newest and youngest member of the cast, who will be playing Quicksilver in the film, described his character as “very fast. He’s quick. He’s a spaz. He talks quick, he moves quick, everybody is very slow compared to him. He’s always at an ATM waiting for the bastard in front of him to finish.”

At which point Michael Fassbender, who plays the young Magneto and Quicksilver’s estranged father added, “He’s got excellent genes!”. He’ll apparently also have a “seventies version” of his costume according to Singer, who explained that “I had grown up as a kid in the 1970s and I had forgotten how hideous some of the clothing was back then.”

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And for that single grumpy audience member who was still not happy (there’s always one), screenwriter Simon Kinberg then went to reiterate that this movie was all about honouring Chris Claremont and John Byrne’s original stories, and staying as true to the source material as possible. That being said though, there will be one notable change.

“The biggest difference between the film and the source material is that Kitty’s not the one who goes back in time, she sends someone back in time.”

Singer explained why that decision was made here:

“Initially, it began with the goal of bringing this cast together and time travel or time displacement of some kind would be  the tool we could use to do that. Essentially the Wolverine of the future … his consciousness is sent into his younger self, and it’s nice that Hugh is able to play both parts, because his character is ageless, which is really unique.”

Singer and Patrick Stewart then also discussed the fact that the older Professor X is alive and well in the future timeline, when we last saw him get vapourised in X3: The Last Stand.

Stewart: “I heard about this movie and I was immediately filled with such sadness, because, as you may recall, at the end of the third movie, I was vaporized by Jean Grey. [laughter] And that really hurt, by the way. I hope that never happens to any of you. So, I assumed everyone – Hugh, Halle, Ian – they’d be back, but it wasn’t me.  Then, something happened … which I’m not allowed to talk about. Am I? Oh, you can!”

Singer: “Characters come back to life in the comics. Whenever I do something, I can’t just do it flippantly, I have to believe in the idea, the conceit. In my own mind, I understand how Xavier is alive from X-Men 3. There’s a beat after the credits when his conscious is alive in a woman in the hospital. So, you take that, mix it with some powerful mutants – mutants can do a lot of cool stuff – and you can imagine… anything’s possible.”

Stewart: “So does that mean Xavier is back?”

Singer: “For the moment … “

And if all of that doesn’t entice you to see the movie, Jennifer Lawrence, in typical Jennifer Lawrence fashion, succinctly summed it all up.

“[Halle Berry’s] pregnant, I’m naked. Come see the movie.”

The Wolverine will be berserker raging into cinemas on July 26, 2013, while X-Men: Days of Future Past will be time-jumping to May 23, 2014.

[Sources: JoBlo, i09, Slashfilm, Collider]

Last Updated: July 22, 2013

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