If you've seen last year's The Wolverine, read on. If not, abandon all hope because we are sounding the spoiler siren. What is about to be revealed concerns Logan's claws, and explains why they will be both bone and metal over the course of X-Men: Days Of Future Past.
During the final fight in The Wolverine, Logan-San had his adamantium claws sliced clean off by The Silver Samurai, leaving him with organic bone claws that grow back through the stubs of the adamantium coating. But, as eagle-eyed X-fans will have noticed, the future version of Wolverine in **Days Of Future Past **has his shiny throat-slicers back in action. How?
Director Bryan Singer explains that Magneto's ability to manipulate metal might have something to do with it. The Master Of Magnetism could, perhaps, "reconstitute the adamantium claws... [Wolverine] has a different relationship with Magneto, and perhaps Magneto could forge them."
Singer is circumspect there, but it seems clear that what many presumed is what will come to pass: faced by such a great foe as the mutant-hunting Sentinels in the future, Magneto helps Wolverine with his hand-blades. We know that Magneto can manipulate adamantium at will: not only can he freeze Wolverine in his tracks with a thought, the comics also saw him rip the metal off Logan's skeleton molecule by molecule. Ouch.
Days Of Future Past finds Professor X, Magneto, Wolverine and the current X-team confronting a dark alternate future where mutants are an endangered species, tracked down, imprisoned or killed thanks to Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage)’s Sentinel program and an overwhelming level of distrust from regular humans.
They boldly plan to send Wolverine’s consciousness back in time to the First Class era (or, to be specific, 1973) to convince the younger Professor X (James McAvoy), Magneto (Michael Fassbender) and the rest to work together to stop the threat at its source.
There's much more about X-Men: Days Of Future Past in the new issue of Empire, out today. To make sure you get the cover you want, browse this gallery below and then head to our subscriptions website.
We expect a new trailer for the film soon, given that the release dates for Days Of Future Past are May 22 in the UK and May 23 in the US.