While X-men: First Class may not have been quite the barn burner Fox was hoping for, it performed well enough financially and critically that a sequel was never really in question. Back in June we started to hear rumors that the next film would go far beyond the kitschy 1960s era tone of the original, and possibly take elements from the classic Days of Future Past storyline from the comics. Fox had even gone so far as to register a domain name with the MPAA hinting at just that, so the writing certainly appeared to be on the wall.
Now in an interview with IGN, producer and original X-men director Bryan Singer has confirmed the sequel's title is Days of Future Past and will take from Chris Claremont's classic storyline. He also hinted we may see some long-awaited "connectivity" between all of the films. We got a tiny glimpse of how cool an X-men shared universe could be when Hugh Jackman's Wolverine popped up in X-men: First Class, and now we be seeing that taken to the next level.
As for Days of Future Past, it's probably the most memorable and lasting X-men storyline of all. Written by Claremont back in 1981, it takes place both in the future and the present, and presents a dystopic possible future timeline where the country is ruled by the mutant hunting Sentinels. This comes about due to the X-men's failure to stop Mystique's Brotherhood of Evil Mutants from assassinating Senator Robert Kelly. It's a bleak story that doesn't quite match up with the tone of X-men: First Class, but I like that they're going in a different direction.
X-men: Days of Future Past will be directed by Matthew Vaughn and hit theaters on July 18th 2014.
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