Fans of Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen rejoice! The veteran actors will be returning to their roles of Professor X and Magneto in the next X-Men film, Days of Future Past .
Bryan Singer, who helmed the first two (and by most accounts best) X-Men films, is back to direct Days of Future Past. Singer replaced original Days director Matthew Vaughn this past October.
He just announced via Twitter that both Stewart and McKellen will be joining their First Class counterparts James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender, along with Jennifer Lawrence and Nicholas Hoult.
Deadline is unsure how casting Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen alongside their younger counterparts in X-Men: Days of Future Past will work out. Entertainment Weekly gave us a breakdown last August of the comic the film is based off of:
“Days of Future Past was a time-travel story released in the early ’80s. In a bleak dystopian future, the mutants of the world are hunted down and sent to internment camps. Most of the X-Men are dead; the ones that are still alive are on the run. In the original story, the future version of Kitty Pryde time-travels back in time into her young self’s brain and works with the present-day X-Men to prevent the atrocity that kickstarts the whole miserable future.”
Singer is mum on whether or not his version of Days will stick closely to the original book, only telling Mike Fleming Jr. of Deadline : “The movie is called X-Men: Days Of Future Past , use your imagination.”
Are you more excited for the new X-Men film, Days of Future Past now that Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen will be reprising their roles as Professor X and Magneto? Or is the X-Men franchise over? Sound off in the comments below!
Thrilled to announce @ ianmckellen118 & @ sirpatstew are joining the cast of #XMEN #DaysOfFuturePast #magneto #professorX More to come…
— Bryan Singer (@BryanSinger) November 27, 2012