Screenwriter and producer Simon Kinberg chats to us on the set of X-Men: Days Of Future Past.

The thing that was daunting was getting the cast together schedule-wise, deal-wise, all of that.

But creatively, everybody got really excited about it.

We wanted to bring in the older Charles and Erik, and from there, it evolved.

Is it a means of bringing them together?

So given that we wanted to bridge those two casts,Days Of Future Pastdid it with time travel.

Plus, we didnt want it to be cheesy.

When it comes to bringing theX-Mencast into it, some of the ensemble cast has fallen out of it.

How did you decide on who was going to come back and who you were going to leave out?

The cast we did and didnt include from the last movie was dictated by the story.

It wasnt about availability issues.

But thats just because for this story, they werent best suited to it.

The continuity of the future takes place after anything weve seen before in theX-Menmovies, is that right?

And if so, how does that tie in to Patrick Stewart being in the movie?

And any continuity questions are addressed within the story.

What about Ellen Pages character, Kitty Pryde?

Because in the comics, her role is extremely big.

That came from a lot of different places.

Hes strong enough to survive?

Versus Logan, whos immortal and can live forever.

So he would look the same in the future as he does in the past.

We can use the same actor.

How has the scale of this movie affected the writing of the action?

Its definitely the biggest scaleX-Menmovie by a wide margin.

So from an action standpoint, we approached it from a skys the limit standpoint.

So how do you match that in the past?

Its really big in scope.

And there is a slight technological advancement, I guess, that makes the past bigger.

The previous film focused a lot on the relationship between Erik and Charles.

How much does this movie expand to two time periods?

Are there allegiances, that sort of thing going on?

Mostly in the past, but theres work theyre doing in the future as well.

In this film, we build him back up to become Professor Xavier.

How do you set up their relationship in the future?

This movie, in some ways, affords them the chance to do things differently.

Was there an impulse from the studio to make theX-Menfranchise bigger following the success ofThe Avengers?

Fox obviously has a lot of mutant characters.

Was there a message that Fox wanted to make it bigger the more mutants, the merrier?

[Laughs]

I dont think that was the goal, honestly.

It didnt come from a mandate of a commercial thing of bigger and more mutants.

Are we going to see more adventures from either side of these characters?

Is it possible well seeAge Of Apocalypse,or other sagas of theX-Menuniverse?

In the future movies?

I have no idea what the future movies hold.

Weve been talking to Bryan, and the studio obviously, and wed love to continue making these movies.

Can you talk about how the themes have grown in this movie?

The themes of the comic are so rich and dramatic because of Charles and Erik.

This film explores the Vietnam War, Richard Nixon, big, iconic, literally political issues.

You know more than we knew about the world ahead.

Simon Kinberg, thank you very much.

X-Men: Days Of Future Pastis out on the 22nd May in the UK.