Ian McKellen And Patrick Stewart Return For 'X-Men: Days Of Future Past' Along With 'First Class' Counterparts

Director Bryan Singer just confirmed on his Twitter that Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart will reprise their roles at Magneto and Professor X in X-Men: Days of Future Past, the sequel to X-Men First Class which starred Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy as younger versions of the same characters. They'll be returning too, along with Jennifer Lawrence and Nicholas Hoult. The film is scheduled for release July 18, 2014. Read more after the jump.

Here are the Tweets in question.

As you probably know, the Days of Future Past storyline alternates between the past and future (hence the title) meaning that bringing back McKellen and Stewart was almost a no-brainer. Here's the description:

The storyline alternates between present day, in which the X-Men fight Mystique's Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, and a future timeline caused by the X-Men's failure to prevent the Brotherhood from assassinating Senator Robert Kelly. In this future universe, Sentinels rule the United States, and mutants live in internment camps. The present-day X-Men are forewarned of the possible future by a future version of their teammate Kitty Pryde, whose mind traveled back in time and possessed her younger self to warn the X-Men.

What's interesting, though, is despite Wolverine's cameo in X-Men: First Class, no one has really come out and said that film takes place in the same universe as Singer and Brett Ratner's movies. This all but confirms the continuity to be the case.

Add that to Mark Millar's statements that The Wolverine will be almost an Iron Man-esque kickoff for 20th Century Fox, meaning it'll start their own Marvel continuity, and you can just begin to imagine what that film – taking place after Singer and Ratner's X-Movies – could begin to do. The Wolverine will be out in 2013 with Days of Future Past to follow in 2014. Jackman would almost certainly have to appear, right?

For now, does this make sense to you? Can it work?