In anticipation of the film's release today, The Wolverine director James Mangold had a chat with Digital Spy about the hyped after-credits sequence. Setting up for Hugh Jackman's mutant's next appearance in X-Men: Days of Future Past, Mangold says of the stinger, "I had finished the movie and Future Past had started shooting, a couple months ago, and we had been talking about what to do, if anything, in the tail credits of this movie." He says, "It's something I had been talking about with Simon Kinberg (producer) and Bryan Singer at that point about what we might do to kind of feed into it. My only stipulation that was important to me was just that I really didn't want it to be tongue-in-cheek. I feel like a lot of these bonus things almost make the film into a joke, and that wasn't interesting to me." Mangold continues, "I thought it would be more interesting to try and actually do something quite promising, actually say something and promise something and give people a piece of a story. The whole sequence was built around the shot where we'd unveil Patrick, and I created this shot where he's weaving through all these frozen airport patrons and that is Patrick Stewart with a joystick and electric wheelchair and that isn't easy," he explained. "He's doing a kind of Olympic slalom through all these extras and uh, he's a badass on that thing." When asked if he was glad that it would be Bryan Singer's job to fully explain how Patrick Stewart's Professor Charlves Xavier is alive after X-Men: The Last Stand, Mangold replied, "Yes, it is his job and I know they have one, so I'll leave it to them to unveil it."
Anyhow, X-Men: Days of Future Past is currently filming, and stars Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, Patrick Stewart, Michael Fassbender,, Ian McKellen, Nicholas Hoult, Omar Sy, Peter Dinklage, Halle Berry, Adan Canto, Fan Bingbing, Anna Paquin, Evan Peters, Daniel Cudmore, Ellen Page and Booboo Stewart. Bryan Singer directs the film in theaters on May 23, 2014!