Casting for Bryan Singer's X-Men: Days Of Future Past has pretty much gone as expected. Since the filmmaker agreed to direct the movie last year, he has done little else but bring back actors he originally hired for the series over a decade ago - the likes of Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Hugh Jackman, Anna Paquin, Shawn Ashmore, Halle Berry, Daniel Cudmore and others. Singer's heart clearly and understandably lies with the original films he directed and strangely for a follow-up to 2011's X-Men: First Class, only four actors from that film are confirmed for the movie (James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence and Nicholas Hoult), compared to twice that number from the original series. At this point X-Men: Days Of Future Past looks more a sequel to X-Men 3: The Last Stand than X-Men: First Class.
The latest update on the cast from Bryan Singer's twitter account curiously leaves several major characters from Matthew Vaughn's movie in the dark, noticeably Rose Bryne's Moira MacTaggert and the whole of the Hellfire Club. According to
The Coventry Telegraph's sources - Emma Frost (January Jones), Angel Salvadore (Zoe Kravitz) and Riptide (Alex Gonzalez) won't appear in the film as they aren't part of the story being told. Most fans of the X-Men film saga could probably sleep soundly without the appearance of Angel and Riptide but January Jones' Emma Frost was a major part of the last movie's promotional campaign and the omission of such a major character, is somewhat surprising. Jason Flemyng's devilish mutant Azazel is apparently also a victim of Singer's cutting. The actor told the Irish Independent;
"I don't think I will be back. Initially I was gutted, but then, I remembered I had to get up at two in the morning, I had to be painted red and be slightly out of focus and posed a lot, and that was sort of it. Now I don't have to do that."
So Bryan Singer is out to right the wrongs he has perceived the franchise to have made since he left, claiming there's "a few things I want to repair". The report in The Coventry Telegraph further claims that it was Singer's decision to omit The Hellfire Club from the script as a prior development of the film under "First Class" Helmer Matthew Vaughn had them included, which isn't at all surprising given the comments he has made about his agenda with the sequel. Casting is still underway on X-Men: Days of Future Past, with filming to begin next month. The film itself will be released in July 2014. What do you guys think of Singer's desire to omit Emma Frost and the Hellfire Club from X-Men: Days of Future Past?