By: Katey Rich

It’s supposed to be a sleepy Saturday, but it turns out X-Men: Days of Future Past director Bryan Singer couldn’t resist breaking a little news. Returning to the franchise he kicked off with X-Men and X2: X-Men United, Singer is in pre-production on the hotly anticipated sequel, and confirmed today that three familiar faces from his original trilogy will be making a comeback. Here’s what he tweeted:

He’s thanking Brett Ratner, of course, because he took over the franchise for X-Men 3, and kept all three of those younger X-Men faces in the fold for perhaps this very reason. We’ve already learned that the new X-Men film will involve time travel, with older versions of the characters traveling back in time to warn their younger selves about a potential alternate universe. Ellen Page’s character Kitty Pryde was a major element of that plot when it appeared in the comics, and fans have speculated for a while that she would make a return– though this is the first confirmation we’ve gotten that it would actually happen.

Paquin and Ashmore, who played Rogue and Iceman in all three of the original films, will be fitting into the plot in a slightly more mysterious way. X-Men: Days of Future Past is currently set for release on July 18, 2014, and most of the major players from X-Men: First Class will be turning, including Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence and Nicholas Hoult. With all that time travel, though, they’ve also made room for the older versions of Magneto and Professor X, played by Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart. Is this all just going to be way too confusing with all these X-Men running around? Given how successful X-Men: First Class was with a completely baffling plot, I wouldn’t worry too much about that.

Source: Cinema Blend