Sci-Fi Storm

Director Bryan Singer announced via Instagram that a new mutant will join the cast…Jubilation Lee, better known as Jubilee, the Chinese American girl with pyrotechnic abilities. She will be played by newcomer Lana Condor.

The character has in fact made appearances in the movies before – in the first three X-Men movies, she appeared only as a background character in the classrooms but never identified by name except in a deleted scene.

It also looks like we will get the younger versions of Cyclops, Storm and Jean Grey as well.

Finally answering a long-gestating rumor, Fox is confirming that they are in negotiations to being one of the Marvel franchises it has had success with on the big screen to the small screen.

Fox TV co-chairs Gary Newman and Dana Walden told TV Insider that they are indeed planning on bringing the X-Men to TV, joining ABC and Netflix with Marvel-based shows and the CW with their DC-based franchises. They are currently very early on as they need to negotiate for the rights with Marvel (now part of rival Disney), which could lead to some interesting changes. Fox has the rights to films based on the X-Men, but Marvel has to grant the rights for TV use.

Since this is in the very early stages, nothing else has really been set up yet. It likely would be late 2016 at the earliest that any series could air.

In the “Marvel but someone else is in charge” department…

The X-Men franchise spinoff Deadpool movie is finally moving forward, and Ryan Reynolds will reprise the role he originated in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. In that film, the character of Wade Wilson, an amoral expert in martial arts, particularly with a pair of katanas he can wield fast enough to defend against bullets, is believed to be killed but instead is turned into Deadpool by Striker, having absorbed the ability of other mutants including Wolverine’s healing. Wolverine and Sabretooth appear to kill him, but some DVD materials imply he somehow survives.

It may have been expected, but now it is a fact: Bryan Singer will return to the franchise for a fourth time, directing X-Men: Apocalypse.

Singer helped launch the franchise by directing both X-Men and X-Men: X2, and then returned to merge the original movies with the retro X-Men: First Class in the form of X-Men: Days of Future Past this year.

Plot details are still a mystery, but the script is being written by Simon Kinberg, who wrote X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men: Days of Future Past, from a story by Singer, Kinberg, Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris. It is expected to be released May 27, 2016.

Opens May 23rd, 2014
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Opens May 23rd, 2014…

Here is the official trailer for X-Men: Days of Future Past, featuring Sir Patrick Stewart, Sir Ian McKellan, James McAvoy, Michale Fassbender…and Hugh Jackman, with a few cameos as well…and a glimpse into the plot…
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Another member of the original X-Men movies has signed on to appear in the generation-linking X-Men: Days of Future Past. Halle Berry, who starred as Storm, has been confirmed to appear according to Deadline.

She joins past mutant players Patrick Stewart (Professor Xavier), Ian McKellen (Magneto), Anna Paquin (Rogue), Ellen Page (Kitty Pride), Shawn Ashmore (Iceman) and Hugh Jackman (Wolverine). I’m beginning to wonder which group the movie is actually about…

Despite a pretty certain announcement by director Bryan Singer a couple weeks ago that Sir Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian McKellan would reprise their roles as the older Professor Xavier and Magneto, respectively, in X-Men: Days of Future Past, he may have jumped the gun. Apparently neither have actually signed a contract yet. Stewart told Entertainment Weekly earlier this week that he “knows nothing” but that he’s also under a contractual gag order. Now McKellan tells MTV that he has “yet to sign on the dotted line.”

However, it sounds like both are more than willing – if Singer and the studios can get the contracts to them…

It seems that the upcoming X-Men: Days Of Future Past will have a pair of Professors, a pair of Magnetos – and a pair of knights! Actors Sir Ian McKellan and Sir Patrick Stewart have been announced to appear in the movie in their respective franchise roles, despite the film being a sequel to the younger-cast X-Men: First Class. How this will be accomplished is unknown, but I’m expecting the film to be played as a flashback memory between the two old friend/foes, or else there is something of a Star Trek-style reboot. In any case, stock just went up…