Blockbuster X-cellence

Director Bryan Singer, right, with actor Patrick Stewart on the set of X-Men: Days of Future Past. Photo / AP

Move aside, Avengers. Combining the cast of both the original X-Men trilogy and 2011's prequel X-Men: First Class, X-Men: Days of Future Past could be the biggest superhero blockbuster to hit the big screen so far. Based on Chris Claremont and John Byrne's classic 1981 Uncanny X-Men storyline of the same name, it begins with Hugh Jackman's Wolverine journeying into the past in an attempt to avert a future apocalypse for the Children of the Atom.

Memorably matching up Patrick Stewart's and Ian McKellen's Professor Charles Xavier and Magneto with their youthful incarnations, played by James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender, it boasts nearly 20 prominent members of the Merry Mutants, including Jennifer Lawrence as shapeshifter Mystique and Halle Berry as African weather witch Storm.

"We wanted an opportunity to bring some of the favourite older and younger characters together," says director Bryan Singer, speaking before the recent sexual abuse allegations that have seen two men take out lawsuits against him.

"We also wanted to play with the notion of different times and stuff like the way that time affects destinies. It enables the film to not just be a sequel to First Class or X-Men but to be its own thing."

If anyone can pull together Days of Future Past's disparate elements, it would have to be Singer. Released in 2000, X-Men laid the groundwork for a new golden age of comic book movies, which includes Sam Raimi's original Spider-Man trilogy, Christopher Nolan's trio of Batman opuses. Many Marvel Studios films such as Iron Man and Thor have followed since.

"It was the same as anything that's interesting," says Singer. "It's like why the 70s was such a cool era for movies. When you're trying to do something new and when no one knows what they're doing, that's when you get original stuff."

After helming 2003's X2, Singer, perhaps unwisely, passed on the baton for 2006's forgettable The X-Men: The Last Stand to journeyman Brett Ratner in favour of 2006's Superman Returns, a disappointing reinvention of Marvel rival DC Comics's ubiquitous Man of Steel.

After serving as a producer on the highly successful X-Men: First Class, he accepted the directing reins again after the departure of Matthew Vaughan. "I had a great time on First Class but to be able to work as a director with that new cast and bring back old friends like Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart and Hugh Jackman is just a thrill," says Singer, who put the finishing touches on his central premise in Wellington in 2012, while shooting a scene for last year's fairy tale reboot Jack The Giant Slayer.

"I pitched it to James Cameron when I was in New Zealand and he said, 'Yes, that makes sense.' It's exciting because it's not just another X-Men film; it's not just about bringing all the characters together as there will be certain technologies and other stuff that we haven't seen before in the X-Men films. There are also issues of time and we're messing about with that."

Singer believes that alternating between 1973 and the present day in Days of Future Past's multilayered plot widens its appeal. "It's not necessarily time travel but I'll call it time travel for want of a better word," he says. "The X-Men films have always performed to a certain level by having the science fiction superhero stuff but by adding that element as well, it makes it more than just a X-Men film. It's like, Mother has no interest in the X-Men films, but when I told her what it was about, she was like, 'but I love time travel films!"'

With some critics claiming that last month's Amazing Spider-Man 2 has underperformed at the box office despite grossing more than $640 million to date, Singer could be forgiven for feeling slightly nervous about Days of Future Past's reception.

After Captain America: The Winter Soldier's impressive performance in March and with Marvel intergalactic super-team Guardians of the Galaxy due to make their bow in August, the X-Men no longer have the cinematic stage to themselves.

However, with Days of Future Past forecast to earn $290 million in its opening weekend, making it the biggest comic book film of the year, it seems Singer doesn't have too much to worry about. "You can never compete with that," he says, referring to the various Avengers films. "Tonally it's a very different experience as the X-Men films operate on very specific themes and it's a much more serious kind of universe while the Marvel movies universe is not so serious."

X-Men: Days of Future Past is showing now.