Corona | Coming Attractions

20th Century Fox has already announced its intentions to release X-Men: Days of Future Past on July 18, 2014. With a hard deadline set, plans are rapidly proceeding for director Matthew Vaughn and most, if not all, of the cast from X-Men: First Class to assemble early next year on a soundstage, somewhere.

But will there be a cast member from the first trilogy of X-Men movies appearing in Days of Future Past? Will the time-bending storyline for the X-Men prequel sequel feature two different actors playing Professor X?

Or phrased in a different way, is Patrick Stewart coming back to play Charles Xavier in X-Men: Days of Future Past?

Right now it's barely more than a bit of fanboy speculation, but there may be some substance to it. The origins of the report stretch back to a mention on the Comic Book Club's podcast (and brought to my attention by Nerd Bastards.) One of the podcast's speakers works at an Apple iStore where Stewart was a customer. After geeking out about the fact that Captain Jean-Luc Picard was a fan of the iPod scene, the store employee/podcaster asked him if there was any possibility of Stewart coming back in an X-Men movie.

Stewart didn't utter a word. Instead, he merely nodded affirmatively. So, is that a yes? Will the time travel aspect of Days of Future Past's storyline allow for both and James McAvoy and Patrick Stewart to play two versions of Professor X, a younger and older version?

It would certainly be a cool idea, and it could serve as a true bridge between Bryan Singer's X-Men movie series and Vaughn's newer, younger franchise of mutants. Let's not forget that Hugh Jackman did a blink-and-you've-missed-him cameo in First Class (and it was one of the movie's best moments too.)

Furthermore, by twisting the timelines of Singer's present day movies and Vaughn's 1960s era tales, the stage could be set for bringing forth an altered timeline à la J.J. Abrams' Star Trek movie. Bring McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Jennifer Lawrence's Mystique into the 2010s? Sure, why not -- in the X-Men universe, altered timelines and parallel what-if futures have been an often used story concept since the original Days of Future Past comic book arc from the early '80s.