The cast list for X-Men: Days of Future Past is starting to get a little ridiculous. Featuring the bulk of the cast from X-Men: First Class and significant portions of the original X-Men trilogy, the film is going to be the most jam-packed mutant spectacular this side of the funny books.

So the most recent casting news should not come as a huge surprise. Deadline is reporting that Bryan Singer has nabbed yet another classic X-Man for his upcoming new film:

Deadline has confirmed the actress will reprise her role as Storm in 20th Century Fox’s X-Men: Days Of Future Past. There had been serious concern this wouldn’t work out, but I’m told it has. The X-Men: First Class will be bolstered by most of the original X-cast, including Anna Paquin, Ellen Page, Shawn Ashmore and Hugh Jackman.

When it was announced that Matthew Vaughn was leaving the director’s chair for X-Men: Days of Future Past, the geek community felt an inescapable fear that things might be falling apart. Even the seemingly good news that original X-Director Bryan Singer was coming back didn’t seem to dissuade the growing fear that Fox was once again messing up the X-Men.

Then the online nerd populous started putting two and two together. If the next film was going to tackle one of the most famous comic book time travel stories, and the director was the guy who made the first two great X-Men movies, would we be getting a giant cross generational X-Men X-travaganza?

Well, the answer seems to be a resounding yes, and according to the twitter account of Bryan Singer himself it keeps getting better:

Very excited to welcome #annapaquin, @ellenpage &@shawnrashmore to #XMen #DaysofFuturePast – thank you @BrettRatner for letting them live!

Matthew Vaughn is a frustratingly great director. He is great in regards to his four feature films all being excellent, and he is frustrating because the man seems to take great pleasure in agreeing to do awesome projects and slipping away from them so close to production.

For those of you who don’t remember, Vaughn was the original choice to direct X-Men: The Last Stand after Bryan Singer jumped ship to his Superman snore-fest. Everything seemed great in the X-Universe until, at the last-minute, Vaughn dropped out and Fox was forced to call in Brett Ratner who has a history of bringing in projects on time and on budget. Now X3 had an extremely mixed reaction (I actually loved it, ask me to defend it to a hater some time for raucous debate) but one thing is certain, the film suffered from Vaughn’s departure.

Fast forward a handful of years and Vaughn finally made his X-Film and it ended up being the best of the franchise and single-handedly saved the struggling mutants from an impending cinematic reboot fate. Now we stand at the precipice of another X-Film production with Vaughn at the helm and, wouldn’t you know it, the man bows out.

The X-Men film franchise has undergone a roller coaster of quality. Like any good roller coaster there are ups and downs, and some times wicked loops, and right now the franchise is about to hit one of those pretty big, gut churning upside down loops.

Matthew Vaughn’s First Class was welcome return to quality, but was a tad confusing in the continuity department. It was clearly a prequel, and Fox remains steadfast in the concept that the whole franchise fits together. So people have been wondering what, if any, steps the sequel will take to help bring things together.

Recently producer Bryan Singer confirmed the film’s title, which gives us a very good indication of where potential connective tissue can arise to properly connect First Class with the rest of the franchise. The new X-Men film will be known as X-Men: Days of Future Past.

For those uninitiated in X-Men lore, Days of Future Past refers to a story written by Chris Clarmont that revolves around an alternate, dystopian future and the attempts of one mutant from that time to travel backwards to stop an assassination. In other words, a perfect template for a film set in the past to tie in with a set of films that are perpetually set in the ‘not to distant future’.

What makes this even more perfect is that Days of Future Past doesn’t really need to be a perfect adaptation. The story is very malleable so the filmmakers have some wiggle room to change things as they see fit to make a good movie. A luxury Fox hasn’t had in the past when they tried to change the Galactus and Phoenix story arches.

Stay connected to The Flickcast as we will be on top of any new updates on the next X-Film in the coming months.