The Fox film panel in Comic Con’s infamous Hall H promised “a surprise” among its announcements and coverage for upcoming films, and it did not disappoint fans. As Hugh Jackman wrapped up his talk about The Wolverine, he brought Bryan Singer on stage to talk about X-Men: Days of Future Past, and eventually brought the entire crew out on stage to take a bow.
Too much fabulous in one place… brain freezing up…
Singer was kind enough to cut together some footage for the audience, despite the fact that Future Past has still got a month of principal shooting left and no visual effects completed. It would seem that an older Professor Xavier is going to team up with Magneto to send Wolverine back in time and get young Charles Xavier to get his act together. There’s totally a moment where the professors get to speak to each other (looks like it’s via a psychic connection), which is brilliant. The film is going to feature Quicksilver, played by Evan Peters, and Omar Sy as newcomer Bishop. Peter Dinklage confirmed his role as Bolivar Trask. Looks like Blink is in the movie as well!
The cast seemed incredibly excited to reprise their roles, with Ellen Page admitting that she’d never expected to be playing Kitty Pryde again, and Anna Paquin talking about how much Rogue means to her, seeing as she was cast in the role at the tender age of 17. James McAvoy was decked out in an X-Men shirt that he’d bought at the convention, and Michael Fassbender was so excited to see the footage Singer brought that he hid behind the stage podium to get a look. (Stop it, Fassbender. You’re already lovable enough as is.)
It would seem that Sir McKellen is not immune to his charms either, as he hit on Fassbender during the panel, saying that he felt safer in California now that Prop 8 had been overturned and that he was “looking for a husband,” before looking down the line of actors and bidding Michael a friendly hello…
Fans of the comics know that Quicksilver is Magneto’s son, but the information from the panel was unclear in that regard. While Fassbender joked that the kid has “great DNA,” which would seem to signify their connection, the audience was also told that Quicksilver would be wearing terrible 1970s clothing—potentially ruling out this parentage if he is from the 70s, since Fassbender’s Magneto is too young to have a full-grown kid.
Halle Berry talked about her admiration of Storm’s character, her ability to be the sort of “Earth Mother” of the group but complained about how she doesn’t get laid enough: “Is she asexual in the comics?”
Patrick Stewart made mention that outside of Star Trek, the X-Men family is the cast he feels closest to. When the group was asked about their favorite X-Men outside of the ones they were playing, he joked that he’d like to play one of the female X-Men because, “then I might stand a chance of winning an Academy Award!”
One fan asked for a Wolverine musical, which led to Hugh Jackman improving a few potential lyrics from said musical. He also joked about going out on the convention floor in his Wolverine costume, and how one con-goer claimed he was “not bad,” but another told him he was “way too tall.”
Singer joked that he thought Peter Dinklage looked like his father in the film (Trask sports a “Tom-Selleck” sort of moustache), to which Dinklage replied, “He was that handsome?” Sassy Tyrion, for the win! There were lots of disparaging comments made about 1970s fashion, but McAvoy was quick to assure everyone that he looked amazing in the film.
In regards to the future of the X-Men movie universe, Bryan Singer sounded very open to expanding into more and more movies. Although there was no announcement of a separate Cable or X-Force film, it seems like only a matter of time.
After all the fun and games, the audience got to their feet for a standing ovation before the sneak peek footage was screened again. If you weren’t excited for Days of Future Past, you really should be by now…
And if you need more help with the whole excitement thing, watch the full panel below!
Emmet Asher-Perrin is just so excited for 70s Xavier, you don’t even know.
