X-Men: Days Of Future Past - Five Things We Know

With The Wolverine in theaters later this month, it's sometimes hard to process the fact that they're almost done shooting the next X-Men film, as well; could we really be getting that much Jackman in that short a time? Shorter, actually, as they recently moved the release date for X-Men: Days of Future Past forward so that it's now opening on May 23 instead of July of next year as was originally planned. Things are moving faster than Quicksilver (who will also be in the movie). The gang's all here Both sets of X-Men--those from the Bryan Singer/Brett Ratner films and those from X-Men: First class--will appear onscreen in this version (although it's not yet clear they'll ever actually share the screen). The film will use time-travel to bring younger and older X-Men into the same story, set primarily in the '70s but featuring flash-forwards to Sir Patrick Stewart, Sir Ian McKellen and more.

The '70s isn't just a setting; it's a major part of the story. We've seen the Nixon White House a couple of times already in production teases, as well as Professor X dressed like somebody who just stumbled out of a Steppenwolf album cover. The '70s aren't just the time where the story happens to be set becuase it happens after X-Men: First Class; it's the era that defines much of the story just like the '60s did for that movie. Does that mean that the older versions of the characters will show signs of modern times? Could be interesting to see how the present day plays into the film's themes. New characters Blink, Sunspot and Bishop are among those previously-unseen mutants who are getting a go this time around, plus Kitty Pryde and Iceman, who have appeared before but never really been on the "A" team. And, yes, we've got Quicksilver joining the party, as well. Will The Scarlet Witch join him? Looks like no, so far--but it's Days of Future Past; maybe she'll be "captured" or "deceased." With Hugh Jackman's contract ending, could this be a way to bring the franchise back to the present day without having to pay for the old X-Men to come back? Or will this be the last X-Men film for a while, as they reportedly prep X-Force and a number of X-Men Origins spinoff films?

Not really a sequel or a prequel Described as an "inbetweenquel" a lot by the press (and occasionally Singer himself), the film was generally assumed at first to take place between the two films, bridging the gaps. That created some continuity problems, of course, as did X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but those will apparently be a addressed and maybe corrected in the new timeline of X-Men: Days of Future Past. Not only has Singer said the film will give him a chance to right some wrongs, but filmmakers have later added that you can't necessarily expect it to behave like a sequel, and not everything would actually take cues from the old films at all. It's also not directly tied into the post-credits sequence for The Wolverine; though there reportedly is one, it's not as cut-and-dried as teasing the "next installment." Sentinels! Everybody loves giant robots (just ask audiences who made Pacific Rim the best-reviewed movie last weekend), and the makers of this film are no different. The Sentinels, previously only teased in a Danger Room sequence, will actually appear in Days of Future Past.