Hearing news that fox plans to make an x-men 4 and 5 was quite a surprise in my opinion. I mean with x-men first class coming out, you would think that they have understood their mistake sin previous films and have finally decided to attempt to rectify them with these new prequel franchise. In my honest opinion i thought that first class would have worked better as a reboot type film, in the way star trek done it back in 2009. While vaughn has stated this film will stand separate form the previous films bryan singer reminds us this is prequel, maybe being respectful to his previous films. Which is what i don't understand. Why would you want to stay true to your original movies, when you couldn't even stay to complete a trilogy based on your continuity of the x-men arch. Now they want to make x4 and 5, after the atrocious x3 and it wont work. I don't think this is the right decision. Continuing on from your previous films and doing prequels set back in time doesn't make sense. Having two separate timelines will only confuse the studios main targets which is the mainstream audience.
Ian McKellen has already stated that he will not be returning to play magneto as he does not want to anymore and Halle berry doesn't want to return, so if they do an x-men 4 and 5, they will do it without Magneto, cyclops Jean. Come on? Really? Your going to have an x-men film without to of its main characters magneto and cyclops. I didn't mention jean because she dies all the time in the comics is this is the excuse they could use, but cyclops and magneto not in an x-men movie is like batman and joker not in a batman movie with joker as the main villain. And all those other mutants, popular mutants who were killed by Phoenix, wont be their. e.g. juggernaut. Now no one actually saw juggernaut perish but he was knocked unconscious (by running into a wall...stupid) in the room which the kid and shadow cat were. When Phoenix went insane that whole building incinerated into dust and presumably everything inside it. So in theory juggernaut is dead. Also pryo may have died having being knocked unconscious by iceman. So many characters, just gone for no apparent reason only for the fact that last stand was their planned last film in those series of films (they explained this on the dvd bonus features) so killing of main characters was applaudable (to them). I've read through the comment section on that article, and some fans have had really interesting and clever ways to bring back characters, some are actually typing in capital letters to bring back cyclops and make him the leader, which he rightly should be. Some of the ideas involve bringing back cyke through a storyline involving sinister. Then make him an henchman of apocalypse some what like age of apocalypse storyline. Really really awesome idea. But they reason why is will never happen is because bryan singer will inevitably be directing these new films, if he hasn't got anything else planned. He has stated that bringing in these characters eliminate the realism he has established in his films. Their is a chance that he could change this view, but who really thinks he will? We have a better chance of seeing the likes of sinister and apocalypse will feature in future Matt Vaughn's x-films, because vaughn isn't afraid to tackle these themes and concept form the comic. Remember Bryan singer wrote the story for first class originally when he was set to direct. When Vaughn took over many re-writes were done to make the story more to liking. I think the sequel to first class will give more control over the stories concepts and will have a bigger scope in terms of story and something much more conjunctional with the x-men mythos.
Last stand ended with wolverine is cykes position while storm had the role of prof. X. I personally don't want to sit their and watch wolverine and storm talking crap for a movie while all the other characters are just used for plot devices, colossus iceman rogue didn't do anything in the previous films and wont do anything in these new film because they've based these characters around wolverine. Every character in the film was based around wolverine which is why every character was so bloody one dimensional e.g. Cyclops was just their really so that Wolverine making a move on Jean would make him seem more baddass. I would rather they do prequels like first class and tell us new stories on a bigger scope rather than continuing on from the atrocious x3. We need to see Cyclops the leader he deserves to be. don't get me wrong wolverine is an awesome character but his not the ONLY awesome character. Cyclops is one the most heroic figures in all comics. His story could have been explored so well on film. Bringing him back to life will aggravate mainstream audiences (their main source of money), not bringing him back will infuriate hardcore fans. What story could they tell in x4 and 5. It will probably be a good story but it wont be good enough to breathe life into a deceased trilogy, while first class has the opportunity to do this. Why focus on a tarnished series of films when they have the chance to go more epic than anything they did in the previous films. They can do whatever story they plan on doing with x4 and 5 in the first class series of films and this way they can have ALL the characters exist seeing as it is a prequel, and it wont seem ridiculous. Bring in sinister and apocalypse. Bring bishop and....i would say cable but seeing as cyclops is apparently dead then he cant really be born, unless they want to make him wolverines son which seems quite likely when you consider some of the liberties they've taken. Im not saying people should agree with me, but my opinion is that x4 and 5 will be the same old stuff, either an extremely horrible set of films or a set of films that are great but don't have that epic scope that superhero films in recent years have had (Dark Knight, Iron Man). Vaughn has said that this new film is taking the 2009 Star Trek route, this is a good idea because ideas could be executed on a grander scale, Shia'r empire would be nice also. So many possibilities, they just should'nt try and continue on from something you intended to end with Last Stand.They dug them selfs a hole then and they will dig a bigger whole if they do x4 and 5 with many character who were declared dead now returning but then not bringing them back will still prove detrimental. Quite a conundrum their in.