Losing previous director Matthew Vaughn – possibly to Star Wars Episode VII – has not slowed down development on X-Men: Days of Future Past one bit. Shortly after Vaughn’s departure Bryan Singer, a producer on the Vaughn-directed X-Men: First Class, signed on to direct his first X-Men film since 2003’s X2. Then just yesterday Singer confirmed that Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen would be re-entering the franchise as the older Professor X and his friend and nemesis Magneto.

One of the remaining question marks surrounding the casting of Days of Future Past would be whether or not Hugh Jackman would also be joining the ever-growing ensemble cast. He’s become the X-Men franchise’s star player and good luck charm so it should come as no surprise to anyone that Jackman is now in negotiations to return as Wolverine.

Jackman, who has been playing the character in every X-flick since the 2000 original, headlined his own solo movie (with a sequel opening next summer), and even brought back the clawed Canuck for a brief but hilarious cameo in First Class.

First Class stars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, and Nicholas Hoult will also be returning for the hotly-anticipated sequel, but their return was never in question, except for Lawrence, who also has the Hunger Games sequels on her plate.

X-Men: Days of Future Past will be based on the classic two-parter than ran in the pages of Uncanny X-Men in 1981 and was written by Chris Claremont with artwork by John Byrne and Terry Austin and depicted a possible future where mutants are either hunted down and killed by the giant robot Sentinels or imprisoned in concentration camps. Since the story played with alternate timelines it will be interesting to see how Singer brings together the future and prequel X-teams and intertwines their respective destinies. It is just good to have Singer back in the director’s chair with three of the best actors he chose for the X-Men franchise returning with him.

X-Men: Days of Future Past is set to open in theaters on July 18, 2014.

[Source: THR]

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