X-MEN: Days Of Future Past (Casting, Rumors, Pics till release)

Slight correction: It was called X2: X-Men United.

 

Well... er... I wasn't that bothered about the title if I'm honest.

 

It's just X2 in the actual movie. X-Men United is just a marketing name.

 

I stand corrected. And yet, that seems so bizarre to me. Why call it one thing and then market it by another name? I can't see the logic behind that.

 

The marketing folks were probably afraid that people wouldn't know what the hell X2 was about (despite the fact that X-Men characters were plastered all over the posters), so they put "X-Men" up on there to make it even more obvious. Kind of like the brilliant decision making that led to X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

 

I said the same thing about the X-Files movie.

 

There are a lot of films that fall into a weird area where the on screen title doesn't match the advertizing title.

First Class doesn't actually have X-Men in the title (just an X)

Iron Man 3 is actually Iron Man Three

Rise of the Silver Surfer has no Fantastic Four in the film (Just a big 4)

...and if you want to get silly, The Talented Mr. Ripley's full on screen title is The Mysterious Yearning Secretive Sad Lonely Troubled Confused Loving Musical Gifted Intelligent Beautiful Tender Sensitive Haunted Passionate Talented Mr. Ripley.

 

Happens all the time in all kinds of media, usually when there's no pre-existing catch phrase, slogan and/or the title doesn't really "sell" the product (according to the marketing people.)

Anyone remember the add campaign for Mass Effect 2? That whole "fight for the lost" thing was only ever mentioned in the marketing materials, never once in-game. Indeed, the actual story had more to do with what was making people "lost" than the lost themselves.

 

I don't recall them ever marketing it as a "Batman film." That is to say I think all the marketing was calling it "The Dark Knight," I think this was a rare time where WB was trusting it's audience to know what the title meant.

 

So the second X-Men film is really the only one that had a number. I suspect that Days of Future Past will be the last film with the original cast (Patrick Stewart, Halle Berry, etc) although I won't be surprised if Hugh Jackman keeps showing up as Wolverine in further films.

 

I don't mind that much when they re-cast. I get frustrated when they reboot.

 

Maybe Dougray Scott will finally get his shot at Logan!

 

Unfortunately for me, the further they diverge from the original cast, the less interest I have in any of these films. To me, the X-Men just isn't the X-Men without is Cyclops, Jean, or Wolverine. I grew up on the 90s cartoon; those are the characters I love.

 

But X-Men can be so much more than that core group of characters. Even now Bendis' 'Uncanny X-Men' is introducing us to new and interesting mutants who I would love to see in films one day. In fact I'd love to see more diverse line-ups in the future, and hope they move away from the core group a little.

 

I really liked the First Class cast, so I don't mind if they stick with them, or at least Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hault, and James McAvoy. Honestly, I think it would be kind of cool if we rotated the casts out every 3 or 4 movies. There are more than enough X-Men characters that they could do that quite a few times, and keep the series alive and fresh.