In 2006 Brett Ratner’s one and only X-Men film was released, ‘X-Men: The Last Stand’ marking the end of what was essentially the first wave of X films, and while plot threads were left unresolved by the end of that film the future of the franchise was uncertain, not so much about whether it would continue, but about what shape the future of the franchise would take.That uncertainty seems in the distant past at this point, given the recent success of ‘X-Men: First Class’, a new wolverine film being well into production and a sequel to first class titled ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’ also on the way. The proposed line of ‘X-Men: Origin’ films has long since been dropped (so we should stop looking forward to ‘X-Men: Origins: Magneto’ or ‘X-Men: Origins: Deadpool’).
‘X-Men: First Class’ works almost as well if viewed as either a reboot or a prequel, though the intention of the filmmakers is definitely on the prequel side. For the sequel it was recently teased that Patrick Stewart may be considered for appearing in the role of Professor X once more, and now another cast member of the original trilogy has been quoted as teasing a potential return.
In the role of Jean Grey, Famke Janssen portrayed that character’s arc right through to becoming the phoenix in X3, Janssen recently had the following to say when the question was posed to her about appearing in the first class sequel;
One never knows. Jean Grey, the Phoenix … she finds a way to reincarnate herself constantly, so one never knows
That’s a long way from any form of confirmation, so just consider it a vague possibility at this point, but it does pose the question of returning original cast members. ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’ does involve elements of time travel so there’s the option of bringing back some charactersfrom the previous films to encounter younger versions of themselves or other mutants.
Let us know who you’d like to see return!
