As I mentioned at the end of my review for X-Men: First Class, from the major acclaim that the film is receiving, you can be sure that sequels will follow. There have already been reports that director Matthew Vaughn has thought about using JFK’s assassination as a key moment in the next film and some of the writers have already discussed certain characters they’d like to see in the sequel, but today we have some thoughts from executive producer and director of the first two X-Men films, Bryan Singer, on where the next film could go.
“I don’t know if every movie has to be a history lesson. But there’s a lot of history to cover. If we sequelized this, it could inhabit a whole world of the 20th century. When [‘First Class’] happened, Kennedy had not been assassinated and the Vietnam War hadn’t happened yet,” Singer said of the possibilities.
Singer had originally talked about the first film being set during the civil rights movement. Returning to this possibility, he mentioned “What’s really interesting about the ‘60s setting is the civil rights movement. You don’t need to hit people over the head with [a history lesson] in every movie or every scene, but having them at the core of the conflict is what I think makes it all work.”
The X-Men getting involved in the Vietnam War or the civil rights movement? That could be an interesting continuation for the characters. One big reason the first film worked so well was because the writers chose to use the Cuban Missile Crisis as a backdrop, adding realism to the story by grounding it in reality. If they are able to do the same using these or other events then there’s a good chance that the sequel could be just as good.
X-Men: First Class has grossed $65 million in the U.S. so far and has a grand total of $129 million worldwide. This was deemed a little disappointing given that the film cost about $160 million to make, but this is merely after its first week of release. There’s still plenty of time for the film to continue raking in money. If you haven’t yet done so, do yourself a big favor and go see it. Chances are you won’t be disappointed.
(Source: The Playlist)