Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan Return in X-Men: Days of Future Past

We've been waiting to hear some details about X-Men: Days of Future Past, the sequel to the X-Men: First Class that marks the return of director Bryan Singer (X-Men, X2: X-Men United) to the franchise he started in the first place. Comic book fans recognize the subtitle from the classic comic book storyline from Chris Claremont and John Byrne in 1981, when a future version of Kitty Pryde went back in time to the (then-) present to prevent an dystopian society where mutants are hunted to near extinction. But with the continuity of the films differing so vastly from the original comics, how would the movies treat the storyline? How far into the future would we go?

Today, courtesy of Bryan Singer himself, we have an idea. Through his Twitter account, the director announced that Sir Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian McKellan would be returning to the series in X-Men: Days of Future Past, along with their prequel counterparts James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender. Singer also confirrmed the return of First Class cast members Jennifer Lawrence and Nicholas Hoult.

I'd like to officially welcome back James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, & Nicholas Hoult to #XMEN for #DaysOfFuturePast

— Bryan Singer (@BryanSinger) November 27, 2012

Thrilled to announce @ianmckellen118 & @sirpatstew are joining the cast of #XMEN #DaysOfFuturePast #magneto #professorX More to come…

— Bryan Singer (@BryanSinger) November 27, 2012

What this means is that the events of Days of Future Past will take us into the "present" in the X-Men movie chronology (or rather, as we discovered in our two-part Series Project on the franchise, the near future, where the original series takes place). Whether this is an alternate future for the cast of X-Men: First Class, or the one we've seen in the previous X-Men movies remains to be seen, although we imagine there's a distinct possibility of a Star Trek-styled reboot, in which Days of Future Past may veer off into a different direction from the original films, freeing Singer and other potential filmmakers from being beholding to the earlier films' continuity.

In any case, Sir Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian McKellan are back as Professor X and Magneto, and we imagine that the James McAvoy version of Professor X will be pretty miffed about what happens to his hair.

William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline's Film Channel and the co-host of The B-Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani