IAR EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Lucas Till Talks 'X-Men: Days of Future Past'

Thursday, 01 August 2013 14:14 Written by Jami Philbrick

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IAR EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Lucas Till Talks 'X-Men: Days of Future Past'

Without a doubt, X-Men: Days of Future Past is one of the most anticipated movies of 2014!

The film is a sequel to X-Men: First Class, as well as the original X-Men trilogy and The Wolverine as some of it is set after the end credit scene of the recent Hugh Jackman movie and X-Men: The Last Stand. However, because it features a time travel element, it is also a prequel to the original X-Men trilogy because part of the movie takes place before the events of the first three films, as well as the two Wolverine spin-offs.

The highly anticipated film takes its story from the beloved two-issue comic by Chris Claremont and John Byrne, which finds our heroes in a dystopian alternate future where mutants are incarcerated in internment camps and an adult Kitty Pryde transfers her mind into her younger self in order to help the X-Men prevent a fatal moment in history that triggers anti-mutant hysteria. But from what we know so far about the upcoming project, it seems that Wolverine’s consciousness goes back in time instead of Pryde’s. Logan then finds an emotionally lost Professor X in the ‘70s, following the events of First Class, and must inspire him to fulfill his potential in order to avoid the dystopian alternate timeline.

X-Men: First Class producer Bryan Singer, who also helmed the first two films in the franchise, directs X-Men: Days of Future Past. In addition to starring Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, the movie will also include appearances by original trilogy actors Patrick Stewart (Professor X), Ian McKellen (Magneto), Halle Berry (Storm), Anna Paquin (Rogue), Shawn Ashmore (Iceman), Ellen Page (Kitty Pryde), and Daniel Cudmore (Colossus), as well as new cast members Peter Dinklage (Bolivar Trask), Omar Sy (Bishop), Fan Bingbing (Blink), Adan Canto (Sunspot), Evan Peters (Quicksilver), and Josh Helman (William Stryker). However, the movie will primarily star returning First Class actors James McAvoy (Professor X), Michael Fassbender (Magneto), Jennifer Lawrence (Mystique), Nicholas Hoult (Beast), and the recently announced Lucas Till, reprising his role as Alex “Havok” Summers

I had a chance to sit down and speak with Lucas Till while he was promoting his latest film Paranoia, which also stars Liam Hemsworth, Gary Oldman, and Harrison Ford, and opens in theaters on August 16th. While we will run my conversation with Till about Paranoia closer to the film’s release, we wanted to let you know now what the actor had to say about his work on X-Men: Days of Future Past. Till spoke candidly about the upcoming movie, his delight at being asked back after First Class, when he finished shooting, his contributions to the project, his character’s powers, whether he is a hero or villain, working with Bryan Singer, being a comic book fan, which original trilogy cast members he worked with, the recently released photo of him on set, and if there will be mention of Havok’s brother Cyclops in the upcoming film.

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.