Patrick Stewart and James McAvoy talk X-Men: Days of Future Past

With pre-production now well underway on X-Men: Days of Future Past, we're starting to get an idea of which X-Men veterans will be appearing alongside their younger counterparts from Matthew Vaughn's X-Men: First Class when director Bryan Singer brings Fox's two X-Men timelines together in 2014. One character we'll be seeing plenty of is that of Professor Charles Xavier, with Patrick Stewart set to reprise his role from the original X-Men trilogy alongside First Class' James McAvoy, and over the past few days both actors have been talking about getting back into the wheelchair for the forthcoming sequel:

"I’m very happy to report that Bryan Singer is coming back to direct the movie. I’m very happy that my lovely friend Ian McKellen [Magneto] is going to be with me," Stewart told Hero Complex, officially confirming his involvement after previously suggesting that Singer had jumped the gun by announcing his casting. "I don’t know anyone else who is to be involved in the project. Maybe it’s just the two of us! That would be a movie! Magneto and Xavier’s conversations…. I’m not being cute. That’s all I know. Maybe once the holidays are over, more information will begin to come through. I have a vague idea of the time commitments, but I don’t know where we’re going to shoot. But I’m greatly looking forward to it."

Meanwhile, speaking to Total Film (via ComicBookMovie), James McAvoy offered up a few comments on his hopes for the sequel: "I thought the biggest thing that X-Men: First Class gave the franchise was a real palpable sense of humor that wasn’t just for a couple of moments.  It was running through the thing. And I hope that continues. I don’t know how easy it will be for me to be a part of that as my character’s going to be in a pretty f**ked up place. It’s a shame because I like the fact that Charles Xavier was witty and funny and a bit of a lecherous old guy trapped in a 30-year-old’s body."

McAvoy also went on to reveal that Days of Future Past will deal with the issue of the younger Xavier's healthy head of hair: "[Screenwriter] Simon Kinberg and I had a chat about it and we came up with a whole bunch of idea about how, why and where he might go bald. It’s got to be linked to the plot though. In the comics, he lost his hair as soon as his powers awakened, and we clearly didn’t follow the source material. It can’t just be that he looks in the mirror at the end of the film and goes 'Oh f**k, I’m losing my hair'. Although that could be quite funny with all this shit going on... he goes 'Arge, I’m really stressed...'"

X-Men: Days of Future Past is set for release on July 18th, 2014, with Michael Fassbender (Magneto), Jennifer Lawrence (Mystique), Nicholas Hoult (Beast) and Hugh Jackman (Wolverine) so far confirmed as joining Patrick Stewart, James McAvoy and Ian McKellen in the cast.