The Facts:

It’s entirely safe to say that X-Men: First Class was the lowest grossing movie in the X-Men franchise, but that isn’t stopping Fox from creating a sequel to it (read more here).

The movie, after all, did gross a nice $350 million. What’s more, both Jennifer Lawrence and Michael Fassbender have seen better roles as a result of their performances in that film (Hunger Games and Prometheus respectively).

What X-Men: First ClassÂ did give the franchise, however, was a retro feel provided by Matthew Vaugn’s direction. The movie also greatly featured the friendly/hateful relationshipÂ between JamesÂ MacAvoyÂ and MichaelÂ FassbenderÂ as Professor Xavier and Magneto. In an interview with IGN (interview below), Bryan Singer outlines a more than aggressive storyline for the prequel-sequel.

The second movie will follow the very popular story of the 1980’s comic released, also entitled “Days of Future Past.” It’s about a dystopian future, in which a majority of the X-Men are dead, and those that aren’t are on the run from the government fleeing persecution. Interestingly enough, in the comic, Kitty Pride travels back in time and into her younger self’s brain, then attempts to unite what X-Men are left to prevent the future dystopia from ever happening.

What makes that so interesting is the fact that the First Class story line takes place years before Kitty Pride exists. When asked what the story will focus on as a result, Singer simply states that he only hopes to “perhaps bring in some connectivity [to the X-Men universe], as Marvelâ€™s done so well.â€ As a result, it is safe to assume that “X-Men: Days of Future Past” will connect the past world with that of the original X-Men trilogy. The only remaining question is “how?” Unfortunately, we are left with a bit of a cliff hanger there.

I have been a HUGE fan of the X-Men story since as early as I could read or comprehend television. To me, it is one of the most enthralling stories in the comic book world. It is hard to find a comic book story that comments on society more than X-Men, but what I find to be truly incredible is the fact that it still finds a way to attract children to its story.

There are, however, reasons to be concerned with the prequel-sequel choosing to go with a time travel story. Frequently, they fall flat and are not done right (cough… Timeline… cough). In fact, this isn’t the first time a rendition of Days of Future Past that has been attempted or mimicked. Many remember the TV series “Heroes.” It had a decent first season, but beyond that was pretty much trash. It draws more than a few resemblances to the X-Men story, but for some reason just wasn’t delivered as well.

One can only hope that this story is as enthralling as the rest of the tales the X-Men series has brought us.

Until next time…