Home Entertainment Bryan Singer talks X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST; time travel and cleaning up the universe

Bryan Singer talks X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST; time travel and cleaning up the universe

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To say that I’m just excited for X-Men: Days of Future Past would be a huge understatement. Every time I think of the Bryan Singer directed sequel to X-Men: First Class, I get a geeky smile on my face, which on a scale of Kristen Stewart to Nicki Minaj, is sitting right at the max.

The reason for this nearly decapitating smile, is the fact that the more I hear about this project, the more it lines up with my initial pipe dreams way back when it was first announced. And now Bryan Singer is here to dish out some more grin-inducing details.

Now firstly, for those of you that don’t know, the classic comic storyline from which the sequel takes its name, saw a future version of Kitty Pryde send her mind back in time into the body of her younger self (COMIC BOOK SCIENCE!) to stop an assassination of Senator Kelly by the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, which would eventually lead to mutants being rounded up by giant robotic Sentinels and kept in future concentration camps as retaliation. She hopes that by changing the past, she can rewrite the future so that it never comes to pass.

Back when it was announced, I postulated that this would be the perfect opportunity to reconcile the original X-Men universe, which Bryan Singer created when he directed the original X-Men and X-2, with the almost rebooted universe of Matthew Vaughn’s X-Men: First Class. The Singerverse (as it came to be known) already had all the groundwork laid down to become that dystopian future timeline. And with all the recent the casting announcements of actors from both universes reprising their roles, it looks like that’s exactly what’s going to happen, much to the delight of fans everywhere.

Now making this idea a reality is not a simple thing, particularly when it comes to how the time travel aspect will be handled, as that could result in brain breaking paradoxes if done poorly. But Singer spoke to Empire and told them that they know exactly what they’re doing with this timey-wimey wibbly wobbly stuff:

“We’ve cracked it in a way that it makes sense. I had a two-hour conversation with James Cameron about time travel, string theory, multiverses and all that. You have to create your rules and stick with them. That’s why Terminator and Back To The Future work so well. And there are certain mechanisms in X-Men, certain powers, perceptions, and characters that make this possible.”

Now the original story, besides for featuring a number of little offshoot story beats, also had a huge cast of characters, some of which we’ve never yet seen on screen, and there probably won’t be enough time do justice to if just thrown into the pot now. How would that be handled? Are they just going to cram in characters and events for the sake of fan service?

“It has a lot of aspects of the comic. The actual comic of Days Of Future Past had a whole ton of stuff going on, so it’s like any of these things; you have to distill it. But I think the fans will be pleased that some of the most exciting parts of Days Of Future Past are going to be connected to this movie.”

One thing that many people – myself included – was probably hoping for was that Singer would be using all this time travel to reflect on screen what most of us have already done in our heads, i.e. make it so that Brett Ratner’s abysmal X3: The Last Stand no longer exists. But it looks like Singer is a bit more of a completionist, and is willing to take on the challenge of make all the good work with the (oh so very) bad.

“I’m taking into account every movie – I’m not just grabbing my first two movies and First Class and smashing them together. I’m taking into account the entire universe as it’s been laid out so far on the screen, and really respecting it and trying to work with that. People took things in various directions, so there’s some clean-up. But ultimately I’m not just ignoring them either.”

Not even that whole Deadpool malarkey in X-Men Origins: Wolverine? Can’t we at least just forget about that ever happening? Pretty please?

Easily one of the most unforgettable scenes in the entire franchise was of course Hugh Jackman’s F-Bomb dropping cameo in First Class. Would we be seeing anything like that again in Days of Future Past?

“We’re going to have another one in this one. We have another one coming up!”

Well, f–k me!

X-Men: Days of Future Past will be out July 18, 2014 and already has a confirmed cast of James McAvoy (young Xavier), Michael Fassbender (young Magneto), Patrick  Stewart (old Xavier), Ian McKellen (old Magneto), Hugh Jackman (Wolverine), Jennifer Lawrence (young Mystique), Anna Paquin (Rogue), Ellen Page (Kitty Pryde), Nicholas Hoult (young Beast) and Shawn Ashmore (Iceman).

Last Updated: January 30, 2013

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