Returning to the Magneto role for the first time since 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand, McKellen joins Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, Nicholas Hoult, Anna Paquin, Ellen Page, Shawn Ashmore, Peter Dinklage, Omar Sy, Halle Berry, Daniel Cudmore, Fan Bingbing and Boo Boo Stewart in the mutant ensemble, set for release July 18, 2014.
Based on the comic book storyline “Days of Future Past,” which ran in Uncanny X-Men #141 and 142 back in 1981 during Chris Claremont and John Byrne’s run and introduced the idea of an alternate future for Marvel’s mutants that grew out of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants killing an important senator, leading to a future where all mutants are hunted by Sentinels.