Producer Bryan Singer confirms that the sequel to X-Men: First Class will be titled Days of Future Past and based on the classic story by Chris Claremont. For an X-Men comic reader – it’s close to the Holy Grail of mutant epics.
“It’s going to be very ambitious. It deals will aspects of that comic but also some very new things”Singer tells IGN.
Uncanny X-Men #141 courtesy Marvel.com
In Uncanny X-Men #141 and 142 the Days of Future Past was a powerhouse two-part story in two timelines. In a future North America rules by Sentinels (mutant hunting robots) most super heroes have been hunted down and exterminated or imprisoned. Magneto, Storm, Colossus and his wife Kate (Kitty Pryde) are in the camp. Rachel Summers (daughter of Scott/Cyclops and Jean Grey) and Franklin Richards (son of Reed and Sue of the Fantastic Four) are together and living in the prison camp too. Wolverine is with an underground resistance movement.
The future X-Men conceive a daring plot to rewrite history and change the nightmare future. Rachel uses her psionic powers to send Kate’s consciousness into the past and into the body of Kitty Pryde who just joined the X-Men. Kitty must convince the mutants to go to Washington, D.C. to prevent the assassination of Senator Robert Kelly by the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants led by Mystique. The killing of Kelly led to the country’s hatred of mutants and implementation of Sentinels. While the past X-Men race to prevent the assassination, the remaining future X-Men fight the Sentinels.
Uncanny X-Men #142 courtesy Marvel.com
Since this storyline features a much older Wolverine and Hugh Jackman is getting older…maybe Jackman could make an appearance as the older Logan leading the underground resistance movement in the future.
The next X-Men film will likely not follow the storyline exactly but it could be an exciting way to reboot the entire film franchise but like Spock created a new timeline in JJ Abrams Star Trek.
We could forget X-Men: The Last Stand ever happened. Professor Xavier and Cyke would still be alive. It could be a whole new beginning for the film franchise and I love Rachel Summers.
Brian Michael Bendis is leaving Earth’s Mightiest Heroes after a phenomenal run to mutate the Children of the Atom this November. All-New X-Men #1 by Bendis and artist Stuart Immomen is part of the Marvel NOW! relaunch. The original five X-Men (including Jean Grey) will be yanked from their past into the present – it’s not the future they dreamed of.
As a lifelong X-Men fan I wanted to share the latest on the big change coming to the franchise. The acclaimed writer tells Marvel.comAvX led to the new series but he’s had his eye on the X-Men franchise.
“Avengers Vs. X-Men led to it. It was an idea that had been floating around the X-Office for a while and I’m still unclear where exactly it percolated. I’m a big fan of these kinds of stories, “Pleasantville” or “Peggy Sue got Married,” where a character faces the truth about themselves and what their life can mean versus what it does mean. They’re very interesting stories and the idea of the original X-Men seeing what the X-Men turned into is absolutely fascinating to me. When I first heard about it I was interested, but it never really stuck the landing or came about. I’d asked about it often, as a fan though, but it never found its home.
When we first did the AvX retreat here at my house, we were sitting outside talking after we finished and I said “I guess I should bail off of Avengers when this is done since I’ve been on it longer than anyone’s ever been on it and eventually I’ll have to leave.” Better to leave now than people going “Ugh, leave.” I wanted to make sure I left on a high note and then slowly the idea of everyone leaving their books began to percolate. I don’t want to put too much importance on it, but it created a domino effect where I was leaving Avengers and someone had to take it, so then they’re leaving their book and someone needs to take that, etc. Everyone has this opportunity to start this new part of their career with a strong take on a new book and with that comes Marvel NOW! It’s very exciting, especially to those of us who’ve locked in big gigs early on.
X-Men #1 courtesy Marvel
Axel, Tom and everyone were at my house and told me if I was interested I should go to X-Men. I said I’d go if no one is doing the “Days of Future Now” [idea, as it was called back then]. At the time it was only me and Jeph Loeb who were interested in it and Loeb already had other commitments. Before AvX I was already [going to be] the writer of X-Men and it was interesting to write these characters in such dire straits. I knew that no matter how crazy it got during AvX that I’d be handling the fallout, which is always the best part.”
Chris Claremont took us into a horrific future controlled by Sentinels in the classic storyline Days of Future Past. Bendis is calling his new book Day of Future Now. For the original five mutants the current state of the world is a nightmare.
“There’s a line in my script, I think Bobby says it: “We used to remember ‘Days of Future Past’ being this mutant apocalypse, and on some level, other than the Jean Grey School, this is worse than what we thought it was going to be,” says Bendis.
Fans were anticipating the return of Jean Grey but maybe not in this form. What does the arrival of the teens mean to the X-Men status quo?
X-Men Origins: Jean Grey courtesy Marvel.com
“Yes, all five of them coming here create a new status quo. Even the simplest one, being Bobby discovering that he grows up to be rather normal, is a shock. It alters you. Jean coming back now is unlike Jean coming back before. This isn’t a reincarnated Jean, this isn’t a clone; this is Jean. She is coming here wide-eyed, but you also have to remember she’s coming into a world where she’s died. [It wasn’t] a great death, and I don’t want to spoil anything for AvX but she’s witnessed some things about her friends and loved ones that will make her feel wonderful, but also shock her to her very core and change all of her relationships. I’m thrilled and one of the biggest gets of bringing back the original five is that we get Jean. We’re not getting a version of Jean, we’re getting the real thing. She’s going to witness what has happened to the X-Men and what she’ll do to try and change that, especially at a time when maybe her powers aren’t at their fullest yet.”
The cast of All-New X-Men will include more than the original five students but it’s a secret for now.
“Yes. Fans of any team but particularly X-Men begin to do detective work to figure out who’s going to be on the team. I’d like to save some surprise for the fans, but know that not everyone is walking out of AvX in one piece. Those who do walk away in one piece will be part of this book. This book isn’t just going to focus on the experiences of the original five but how they change everything in the X-Men universe. There will be a lot of interaction with those who are around to interact with. I’ve already written quite a few issues and Stuart is on his third issue right now and it’s beautiful to look at.”
One of my favorite elements of the Bendis Avengers era was how he brought back great characters like Luke Cage and Spider-Woman. Most of the X-Men are in one or more of the current X-titles but is there a character from the past about to make a comeback?
“Yes, but like Avengers, I’m not going to step in front of it and announce it. I’m just going to let it happen and see if anyone agrees with me. With Spider-Woman and Luke Cage, I just slipped them in there and people liked it. I’m going to need to prove it with my writing beforehand. For example, I’m not going to announce “Maggot is now cool!” and expect people to love him. It has to happen in the writing and most of the time it discovers itself in the writing. I didn’t realize Spider-Man and Luke Cage would be funny together until I started writing them together. The same thing is starting to happen with the X-characters and I’m just going to let it come naturally.”
In regards to accessibility, I’m hoping that this idea, though completely immersed in continuity porn, at its core is five new X-Men coming in and seeing the X-Men through wide eyes. There’s going to be a nice mix of continuity and accessibility. If you know the continuity it’ll all be there but if you’re coming in fresh with the five new X-Men, what fresher eyes could there possibly be? Hopefully, at least, it’s quite a balancing act since it’s literally a cast of hundreds of established characters that have web sites dedicated to them and hardcore fan-bases who have very specific ideas of what the character should or should not do and we’re going to touch on a lot of it.”
I have to admit I was excited about but fearful of this idea. Bendis did plenty of damage of mutantkind with his Avengers run with Scarlet Witch declaring “No More Mutants.” The writer took inspiration from Charles Xavier in a message to X-fans nervous about the future.
“As X-Men fans you should always remember that the X-Men are about acceptance and tolerance. I know that this idea is scary, but embrace Professor X’s ideas and be a bit more accepting and tolerant of the idea—and stop yelling at me. [Laughs] I think for fans young and old the best part is reading an issue and not knowing what’s going to happen after that. Just to have your fans sit back and enjoy the ride is fantastic.
For more of the Bendis interview by Brett White here’s the Marvel.com link.
By Editor
Opinion: Every time a new writer is coming on board X-Men I have excitement and trepidation but I keep telling myself to remember how much Bendis made me love Avengers again and how he brought back Luke Cage and Jessica Drew to glory.
A brand new, old school adventure with Marvel’s mutants drawn and co-written by a living legend. The First X-Men #1 is out this week kicking off a 5 part limited series written and drawn by Neal Adams with Christos Gage scripting.
“You guys probably know I was at one time associated with X-Men…then they canceled the book. I had great fondness for the original X-Men, had the time of my life, then they canceled it,” said Adams referring to this era (1969-70.)
“At the beginning, Stan and Jack were experimenting. You had Professor X, bald and in a wheelchair. These strange kids already in costume. It seems to me like this was not the beginning of the story, but the middle,” Adams tells Marvel.com.
“Of all the mutants on Earth, Professor X could easily pass as a human. Why would he want to get involved in this? Maybe all this was going on before Professor X was Professor X…when Professor X was a teenager. Maybe mutant kids were getting abused by the military, by the government. Somebody would have been looking out for them, but maybe that person came to Charles Xavier, realizing he couldn’t protect these kids. That was my pitch,” Adams revealed.
“Marvel was very generous to provide Christos Gage to me, who is an expert in all this stuff. He’s taking my pitch and turning it into scripts that are in my opinion groundbreaking. It’s the X-Men before there were X-Men,” Adams said about his partner.
The First X-Men by Neal Adams courtesy Marvel.com
From the preview it appears Logan is the leader of this team before the team.
“How deeply is Wolverine entrenched in the X-Men? Why was this first team…maybe a failure? Lots of questions to answer.
It takes place before the original X-Men and at a time when the government was snatching mutants up and doing scary things to them. Logan notices this and thinks somebody needs to look out for them. He recruits Sabretooth, who asks ‘Why?’ and so he pays him. Professor Xavier is a young man studying at Oxford, who’s engaged and wants nothing to do with this,” Adams reveals about the lineup.
“In those early X-Men stories, everybody hates and fears them, but we never really know why. It’s so core to the concept, but it was there before the series started. Here we found out why mutants are so hated and feared in a way that is different from any other super heroes,” adds X-Men Editor Nick Lowe.
Wolverine targets the future master of magnetism for his team. Gage says “They recruit this guy Erik Lensherr who is out there killing Nazis…”
“The natural instinct is that this is like the ‘X-Men: First Class’ movie, but it’s not,” Adams states but adds, “We didn’t mind stealing the Nazi Hunter version of Magneto though.”
Gage calls Wolverine a soldier putting together a unit not a school in this series and Adams reveals more of Logan’s team.
“There’s a character who calls himself Bombastic Aghast, but they call him Bomb. Wolverine saves him from a cave-in then gives him a leather jacket that fits like a tent. He looks ridiculous, but he thinks it’s his costume. Later, Wolverine buys him a jacket that fits, but he throws it back in his face. That jacket means so much to him and represents his relationship with Wolverine. That’s the origin of his costume,” Adams confirms.
Fans may assume this retro tale is from an alternate timeline but the X-Office says this is not
“This is firmly set in continuity. This is not a What If. This is canon. This is key to Wolverine’s history and his relationships with other characters. This will answer questions that have been out there for decades,” says Lowe
“They do encounter ‘hobo’ Sub-Mariner at one point.” Christos Gage reveals. “He throws a car at Wolverine!” adds Adams
“We wanted this to be something you could hand to somebody who just saw the X-Men movies and they’d enjoy it as a good X-Men story. At the same time, for giant nerds like me, FBI agent Fred Duncan from the early stories is in there, and when Professor X talks about his brother you know it’s Juggernaut,” says Gage.
“There will be early versions of the Sentinels. I did the giant ones, now I’m getting to do different one,” revealed Adams
The First X-Men by Neal Adams courtesy Marvel.com
“Wolverine was a mercenary, and mercenaries make a lot of money. Wouldn’t it be interesting to find that Wolverine’s mercenary work funded…” Adams teased.
“The concept that Charles Xavier could pass for a human I don’t think has ever really been explored. At some point in his life, he made the difficult decision to step forward as leader of the X-Men and as a mutant. He could have wiped all of this out of the world’s collective mind. Why didn’t he? Stuff to think about,” Adams says of the mutant leader.
The First X-Men arrives this Wednesday 8/1/12. For the entire transcript here’s the Marvel.com link.
There’s a new X-Men book out this week that will remind you of X-books of the past but I’m intrigued by the fun and thrilling future Greg Pak has planned. X-Treme X-Men #1 spins out of Pak’s Exalted storyline in Astonishing X-Men. Alternate universe versions of Wolverine, Emma Frost and Nightcrawler (General Howlett, Emmeline Frost-Summers and Kurt Waggoner) work with a a twisted version of Charles Xavier to save the entire population of a doomed world.
Our world’s Dazzler is just enjoying life, fame and trying to hook up when Cyclops calls her in to power up a Ghost Box in order to help the new allies Cyke met in Exalted. It does NOT goes as planned and Alison is soon portal jumping with Howlett, Emmeline and Kurt on a mission from Xavier to kill Xavier.
I’m reminded of the Cross-Time Caper in Excalibur and Exiles. An odd assortment of heroes jumping through the multiverse in order to save it. Fun, humor, time travel and weird science could make this an entertaining Doctor Who/X-Men hybrid. I definitely see great potential.
Brian Michael Bendis is taking on the original Children of the Atom after an epic era on the Avengers franchise. Bendis and Stuart Immonen’s All-New X-Men #1 debuts in November. The original Scott Summers, Jean Grey, Bobby Drake, Warren Worthington and Hank McCoy journey from the past into the modern-day Marvel Now!
Bendis tells Comics Newsarama taking over X-Men was always in his mind.
“Yes, but the whole time I’ve been at Marvel, there’s been someone steering the ship in a pretty fantastic way. When I took Avengers, I certainly saw the importance of a strong statement about the book. My friends and colleagues and people who I admire who have done well on the X-Men, or any book really, have come with a very strong statement. I wanted to make sure when the time came, that I had a strong position, something hopefully intriguing to fans and to people who hate me. [Laughs.]
It’s a little different from other writers who have come into X-Men. Like when Ed [Brubaker] joined X-Men, he had never written the X-Men, or Matt [Fraction], or Grant Morrison — they had done so pretty cold. Whereas over the course of my time at Marvel — House of M alone — I decimated the X-Men, I brought Wolverine’s memories back. I’ve done a lot of big things in the X-universe without ever writing a technical “X-book.” Avengers vs. X-Men, and some other things I’ve been involved in, have affected the X-Men in a great, powerful way, which I’m proud of — but that does mean that I’m coming into the X-Men with some notoriousness attached. “That’s the guy who decimated the X-Men!” Some people weren’t reading House of M but were reading X-Men — all of a sudden they opened up a book and [mutants] were down to 200. “Who did this? That guy!” I know that there’s a bit of X-Men fans who see me coming and are nervous, and also I’m known for murdering characters — even though that’s not fair. So I know I’m coming into it with quite a reputation. But on the flipside I’m coming to the X-verse, which is known across the comicsphere as the most dedicated fans, the loudest fans. So I’m diving in head first, whereas with Avengers I wasn’t prepared. [Laughs.] But I am now. On some level.
When Bendis took over the Avengers he literally blew up Earth’s Mightiest Heroes so an X-Men fan may be concerned about how he kicks off his run.
“I’m not blowing up the mansion or anything like that. I came in [Avengers], “I’m gonna blow up the mansion, and go crazy!” and some people really loved that, and some people were like, “Whoa, whoa!” It was tantamount to someone going on the playground and just knocking over your toys. You’re like, “I liked my toys, why are you doing this?” I didn’t see it that way at the time, but in retrospect — I wouldn’t have changed the story or anything, but I was shocked by some of the reaction, and then I went, “Oh, no, I get that. I literally just blew up the house on page three.”
What I am doing here is, I think, as big, but not as destructive. I think it’s additive, I think it’s emotional and dramatic. This idea has been floating through the Marvel retreats for a couple of years. Both [Jeph] Loeb and I would be looking at each other going, “That’s a great idea.” It never stuck to the wall. I literally asked Axel, “Where did that idea start?” It just inspired so many story ideas to me.”
Future X-Men (Rachel, Cable, Bishop) have gone into the present. This is a new twist on time traveling mutants.
“Yeah. I’m a big fan of “Days of Future Past.” I think it’s one of the greatest imagination-inspiring storylines — the idea that your future is going to be hell on earth. If the original X-Men saw what was going on at Marvel today, this is worse than “Days of Future Past.”
Fans always say, “Oh, I wish Stan Lee was still in charge, things would be different.” Joe [Quesada] would point out that that’s not true. Stan was changing the Marvel Universe so quickly, much quicker than we do. Tearing up tracks, switching the Avengers, and blowing up the X-Men, and he was the first guy to do this. If Stan Lee was still in charge, you wouldn’t even recognize the Marvel Universe. So that idea inspired, “what would it feel like if characters from the Silver Age saw the Marvel Universe today?” I did a little bit of it in Avengers, in the Kang storyline. It’s obviously inspired a couple ideas in my work.
There’s something about Jean Grey, there’s something about those original five being such idealists, coming here and seeing what those ideals turned into for good or bad, and deciding to fight for them. I couldn’t get it out of my head. Inside that idea is a bunch of different ideas. The idea itself is the headline-grabber, but what people have to look forward to inside the story is much more. It’s a much more emotional story involving all of the X-Men, and that’s what’s going to be coming in future issues.”
For the entire exclusive interview here’s the Comics Newsarama link. So how will the rest of the X-Men family and titles change? Stay tuned.
Opinion: One of my favorite elements of the Bendis Avengers era is the revigoration of classic characters like Spider-Woman and Luke Cage and newer creations like the Hood and the Sentry. I’m very curious to see how the X-Men will mutate under Bendis.
Northstar is married. Marjorie Liu’s Astonishing X-Men #51 made history and headlines with the wedding of an openly gay X-Men to his human partner. Romance and social significance are just part of the story. Liu is equally spinning action and mystery on her X-Men run. It looks like a short honeymoon for the team as the manipulator was revealed.
Karma is the other openly gay mutant character Liu is using in a surprising way. Last issue’s shock ending and the cover of this week’s issue has me intrigued. The former New Mutant is the traitor playing deadly mind games with her fellow X-Men?
There are times when a fan may exclaim there are “too many X-books!” When you have a writer like Liu on her game and giving underused characters the spotlight I’m thrilled to add another to the pull list.
Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy from X-Men: First Class courtesy Marvel.com
Director Matthew Vaughn, Jane Goldman and Simon Kinberg are working on the script for a sequel to X-Men: First Class. While promoting Elysium at San Diego Comic Con writer Simon Kinberg gave Collider hints of what to expect in the mutant sequel.
“I wish I could tell you about it, but literally, it’s like the most guarded state secret I’ve ever been around. I can tell you that it’s going really well, and I can tell you that I’ve been working closely with Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman on the script of the movie and that we hope to be shooting in Spring of next year to come out in July of 2014 and that I’m really excited about it, because the only thing I can say, because I have to be extraordinarily vague about it, because the last time I talked to anybody about it, I got in trouble…big trouble…what I can tell you is [that] it’s extraordinarily ambitious. It is unlike the other X-Men movies and yet very much a celebration of the X-Men movies.”
“I don’t know enough of what he [Vaughn] has or hasn’t talked about. I can tell you it’s been a very fluid process in the sense of we really went into it, Matthew, Jane and myself, just wanting to create a movie that was as…I’m very proud of First Class…as dramatic as that movie, I think it is as dramatic as that movie, but more epic, mythic in a way as well. So, there are ideas that we’ve started with that haven’t survived, there are ideas that we started with from conversations we had from making First Class that are going to be in the sequel. So, it’s vague but…”
The Cast of X-Men: First Class courtesy Marvel.com
“It’s one of those movies that, because it’s such a big deal for the studio, they have some sense of what it is that we’re writing and they are ambitious about the movie, too. I don’t know what the budget’s going to be, we’ve got to finish the script before we have a budget, but I would assume that it is a bigger movie than the last in physical scope, and that we have the license to do that because of the success of First Class. And because I think Fox has had success with interesting movies in the last couple of years in the genre, like Planet of the Apes was a really good movie, Chronicle was a cool movie, First Class, they’re just narratively or creatively a little bit more ambitious. So they’ve encouraged us to do that with the sequel.”
For more of this interview here’s the Collider link.
The full cast is on signed on to return. I’m still hoping we may see Magneto’s children: Polaris, Scarlet Witch or Quicksilver. I wonder if the success of the prequel inspired the Marvel NOW! decision to bring the original five X-Men into the current time in All-New X-Men by Brian Michael Bendis?
A Geek can dream: Dwayne Johnson could be playing a Greek demigod or an alien bounty hunter next but I think he was born to play another famous comic book alien. Johnson is in talks to play Hercules based on Radical Publishing’s Hercules The Thracian Wars and Lobo of DC Comics.
After reading Wolverine and the X-Men #13 it came to me how Johnson would be perfect as Gladiator, the ultimate Shi’ar warrior turned Emperor. I don’t want to spoil the ending of that issue so I’ll go back in time.
I was a young geek when I first marveled at Gladiator and the Shi’ar Imperial Guard. Chris Claremont, John Byrne and Terry Austin had already blown my mind with what would become the Dark Phoenix Saga. As I opened Uncanny X-Men #137 to see my favorite heroes on a Shi’ar spacecraft surrounded by Empress Lilandra and her Imperial Guard. This elite squadron of warriors was led by a muscle-bound alien with mohawk. Gladiator (real name Kallark) is a Strontian warrior created by Claremont and Dave Cockrum. Strontians have the capacity for incredible strength and various powers as long as they are completely devoted to a sole purpose. Kind of a Zen Superman.
Wolverine and the X-Men #13 courtesy Marvel.com
Gladiator has fought with and against the X-Men to protect the universe from the Phoenix. Emperor Kallark now leads the Shi’ar Empire and his son is at Wolverine’s school – protected by Warbird. The Phoenix is back on Earth. Gladiator and his Shi’ar army arrived to save his son and take on the Phoenix Five in a cosmic throwdown.
Only the Marvel editors know the final fate of Gladiator after this week’s Avengers vs X-Men tie-in but the Marvel Universe would not be as amazing without him in it.
Fantastic Four #249 courtesy Marvel.com
Given the cosmic direction Marvel movies are going maybe we’ll see the Shi’ar Empire in an Avengers sequel or the Guardians of the Galaxy movie. Dwayne Johnson has the powerhouse body and presence to portray one of the coolest aliens to grace comic books and may be it’s worth considerating a Gladiator series and solo movie. Thanks for reading the casting dream of a devoted geek.
