During the production X2: X-Men United Bryan Singer had production designer Guy Dyas develop some art and a model for the Sentinels. Of course we would never see them in the film likely due to budgetary concerns. However, they did end up making a small but brief cameo in X3: The Last Stand in the danger room scene. X-Men Days of Future Past is taking cues from the comic storyline and will have to include Sentinels. Mark Millar has seemingly confirmed they will factor into the new film. Below is some concept art from X2 (via PropStore), a Sentinel production model (via JoBlo circa 2006) and concept art from X3. Could Bryan end up using this existing concept art or maybe going with a different design?
Christopher McQuarrie is best known for his screenwriting work on The Usual Suspects which earned him an Oscar. However, he's moving into the directing field with Jack Reacher and is being linked to direct Mission: Impossible 5. McQuarrie is uncredited but did help develop the X-Men franchise with Bryan Singer. Chris helped add some elements to the first two films and recently wrote the script for The Wolverine. In an interview with ScreenRant he mentions a meeting with Fox to help them flush out an expansive film universe for the X-Men. Similar to Marvel's cohesive cinematic universe that lead to Avengers' massive success.
"You know, Bryan and I have talked about it a bunch of times – and in fact, right after I got back from shooting [Jack Reacher] I had a meeting with Tom Rothman – just a general meeting – and I said to Tom, ‘You know what I’d really love to do, is I’d really love to flesh out the X-Men Universe for you. You have this great wealth of these Marvel characters, and the X-Men franchise has only focused on a small handful of them – there’s many more.'" "And I thought that it’d be really cool to create a ‘bible’ – you know, a series of outlines of interlocking movies where you could do kind of what they did with ‘The Avengers,’ where you’re creating multiple movies that could come together as one movie here and there. And… you know… I never heard back [laughs]. But that would kinda be fun – to do something like that – where you could kind of become the curator for something like that."
The only problem is that Fox hasn't really followed up on Christopher's offer and he could move on to write/direct other projects. Fox confirmed plans for their own Marvel film universe which would begin with The Wolverine leading into X-Men Days of Future Past and Josh Trank's Fantastic Four reboot. Producer Lauren Shuler Donner even stating we could be seeing the X-Men joining future installments of the Avengers if Marvel Studios was open to it. While Feige confirmed that Marvel and Fox co-owned mutants Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver who are established members of the Avengers and X-Men. Wolverine would be their big get as he's been one of the biggest faces of the Avengers team since the 90's.
Mark Millar had been hired to oversee the creative-side of this direction but a visionary hasn't been tapped to put it all together. Millar isn't a screenwriter and likely will be around to explain characters/storylines. Fox doesn't have a Joss Whedon so it sounds like they'll have to split the tasks to a group of people. Having McQuarrie involved could only improve chances for success, not to mention a director who could help make these spin-off films. Deadpool is still in limbo with Tim Miller signing on to a bunch of other directing projects. Also, if The Wolverine is successful enough they'll pursue a third film. X-Men 4, New Mutants/X-Force and Cable films have also been mentioned for possible next Marvel projects for the studio.
We've been hearing bits and pieces of possible storylines for the X-Men First Class sequel. During the week it was revealed that Fox registered the film title Days of Future Past leading us to believe the famous alternative time-line could be used as source material. That could mean that we could see the return of both Kitty Pryde and Wolverine. Lucas Till who plays Havok has his own idea who he'd like to see join the X-Men lineup as he talks with IGN. He mentions Polaris (Lorna Dane) as a possible love interest who had been teased in X2 on Stryker's computer which also included Gambit. Currently, Till hasn't been listed as a returning cast member for the sequel. One thing the X-Men in the sequel will be lacking is female members so it's likely characters like Jean Grey, Rogue (rebooted) and Storm could be making appearances as well. You never know with this new franchise they could make Havok and Polaris the parents of Cyclops.
"All I know is that my mom told me we're going to start shooting in January. It's funny because she tells me everything that goes on before I know. I don't know if you saw, but Havok shoots hula hoops out of his body. I remember when (director Matthew Vaughn) told me, and I was like, 'NOOOO!' It's going to ruin it for all the fans of Havok and I tried to make the best of it, but I really hope in the next one that the chest piece—because there's always that circle in the middle so you could tell where his power level was at—but not necessarily used as a device to channel the energy from. I want some gauntlets or something to shoot it out of my hands, and I want Polaris in there. I want a sexy green-haired girl to fall in love with. That's all I'm asking for."
