Well. That’s a way to grab attention.
In preparation for the upcoming X-Men: Days of Future Past film, Fox has released a promotional clip from a faux documentary about how Magneto was the one who manipulated Oswald’s “magic bullet” into JFK on that day in Dallas fifty years ago. Well, fifty years and like four days but who’s counting? Not Kennedy. He’s dead.
In addition to the video (which aside from feeling a little forced, actually does offer a cool look at the alternative history between First Class and X-Men 1) Fox also set up a website to accompany the video,The Bent Bullet. Here, we’re given an even more in-depth look at the history between First Class and Days of Future Past:
- Riptide and Azazel were killed soon after First Class by Project Wideawake (Sentinels?)
- Magneto has spent the last five decades in a plastic cell (despite the events of every other X-Men film.)
- The Purifiers and Friends of Humanity totally exist.
- It’s possible Magneto didn’t kill Kennedy as it may have been Mystique or someone else entirely.
- Harper Simmons from Remender’s “Uncanny X-Force” makes a guest appearance as the writer for the site’s article.
Now, will most of this figure into Days of Future Past? Not all of it, I imagine. This stunt’s a sort of clever way to explain why Riptide and Azazel won’t be coming back (much to the dismay of their hundreds of thousands of fans) though I don’t see how Magneto could have spent five decades in prison yet still have the events of every other X-Men film occur. Really, even though this might be a pretty insensitive stunt (Are JFK jokes too soon? No, right?) it’s an interesting way to see the type of mood Days of Future Past is going for, especially in the ongoing parallel between Mutants and the Civil Rights movement.
