Here is what he had to say:
IAR: To begin with, I want to ask you about your role in X-Men: Days of Future Past. Can you talk about it at all?
Lucas Till: I’m not really allowed to say anything but it’s been a dream come true getting to work on a movie like that.
Did you expect to be asked back for the new film after First Class?
Till: You know I didn’t know what to expect. A lot of the people from First Class didn’t make it into the next one. I’m fortunate to be a part of it again. I’m real fortunate, I don’t know what I’d do if I wasn’t in it. I live for these movies. It’s a cool thing.
Have you just finished shooting yet?
Till: I did, unless there are reshoots. But as far as I know I’m done.
What was it like working with Bryan Singer as a director as apposed to producer on First Class?
Till: I was in and out. We did a lot of second unit stuff. So I didn’t get to spend that much time with Bryan. But I loved working with him because he let me reinvent the way I do my power. It’s what I wanted to do on the last movie but because there are so many things working against you, you kind of just have to do what they provide for you with the pre-visualization because that is a lot more money than my paycheck. So I had to kind of corporate with what they had already done. But I wanted to do it differently and they let me on this one. Which is cool because I’m actually an X-Men fan. So getting to bring something into the movie and feeling like I was actually part of making this movie is one of the coolest feelings that I’ve ever had.
Did you take a lot of inspiration from the actual comic books for your performance in the new film?
Till: On First Class there was a guy who’s job it was just to give us comics. So he gave me a thousand pages just of Havok. That is where I did most of my research. Ever since then I still read the comics but I don’t read as many as I should. I’m negligent with keeping up with comics lately because I’ve been all over the place. But now that I have some time I’m going to sit down and go through Havok’s books and some of my other favorite characters.
Do you get to work with any of the original trilogy's cast members in Days of Future Past?
Till: I can’t say anything. I probably could answer but I won’t.
Then let me ask you this, did you have a chance to meet any of them while you were shooting?
Till: But if I say I didn’t meet them then you’ll know that I didn’t shoot with them. I’m trying to think what cast members I did meet because it was so fast. Yea, I got to meet some of them. Yea, I did. We’ll leave it there.
In the comics Havok is not always portrayed as a hero and his allegiances are often ambiguous. However, he was on Xavier’s team at the end of First Class, so what side is he on in this film?
Till: Ambiguity is his thing. The ambiguity comes from a place of being a liability. He can’t control his power. He famously can’t control his power for a lot of his arc. That’s the reason he is never on the good side, because he doesn’t want to hurt anyone, but he’s never really been a bad guy. Or he has been but it was sort of Machiavellian, it was a ploy to get on the bad side and undermine them. I think Havok always has a good heart. But he’s definitely not playing for any team necessarily in this one.
There was a photo that was recently released where Havok appears to be in the Army, can you talk about that?
Till: If you can imagine what time our story takes place in, what year, and what war was going on around that time … so I’ll let your imagination run wild.
Finally, will there be any mentions of Havok’s family history or his brother Scott “Cyclops” Summers in the new film?
Till: You’ll have to watch and find out my friend.
X-Men: Days of Future Past is scheduled to open in theaters on May 23, 2014.
To watch our video coverage of the San Diego Comic-Con International 2013 X-Men: Days of Future Past press conference, please click here.
To watch our video interview with James McAvoy about X-Men: Days of Future Past, please click here.
To watch our video interview with Nicholas Hoult about X-Men: Days of Future Past, please click here.