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5 things you might have missed in the ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’ trailer

The action-packed first trailer Fox’s all-star mutant romp "X-Men: Days of Future Past" hit the web on Tuesday morning. Directed by original “X-Men” filmmaker Bryan Singer, the era-hopping film brings together the characters from the first three X-movies with their younger counterparts from the 1960s-set “X-Men: First Class.” The two teams and their respective foes must unite to prevent a dark future that threatens both mutantkind and humanity as a whole.

The “X-Men: Days of Future Past” trailer is full of “blink and you’ll miss it” moments that give hints about what moviegoers can expect when the film hits theatres next May. Here are five noteworthy things you might have missed.

Returning favourites and absent friends

While it’s great to see familiar “X-Men” faces like Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page), Iceman (Shawn Ashmore), and Rogue (Anna Paquin) back in action, there are some noticeable absences in the “Days of Future Past” trailer, namely Cyclops (James Marsden) and Jean Grey (Famke Janssen). For those who have done their best to forget director Brett Ratner’s 2006 film “X-Men: The Last Stand,” you might need to be reminded that he killed off a number of big characters, including Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Professor Xavier. Fortunately for fans of the two characters, “Days of Future Past's” time-travelplot leaves plenty of room for a cameo appearance or future return. Heck, if Professor X is back from the dead, why not the other two?

Logan’s grey hair

Despite a mutant healing factor that makes him functionally immortal, Wolverine is starting to show signs of age in “Days of Future Past.” Yes, that’s grey hair on Logan’s head and beard. Hugh Jackman’s iconic X-character is well over 100 years old by the time the events of the film take place, but it appears that living in a post-apocalyptic dystopia where mutants are imprisoned in camps and hordes of giant killer robots patrol the skies can take a toll on you. Don’t worry, though -- a key plot point of “Days of Future Past” is Wolverine having his consciousness psychically transferred to his younger self in order to prevent a mutant genocide.

Who's the villain?

While younger versions of Magneto (Michael Fassbender) and Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) definitely seem to be getting up to no good (the former using his powers of magnetism quite publicly and the latter kicking up a storm in the White House), the primary antogonist of "Days of Future Past" is never really made apparent in the trailer. Is the self-doubt of young Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) to blame for all the future mutant troubles? Are the philosophical differences between Xavier and Magneto at the heart of the conflict? Or is it the unassuming Sentinel creator Boliver Trask (Peter Dinklage) pictured above? Our guess is that it's a mix of all three, but you've got to suspect the guy with the killer robots up his sleeve isn't exactly in the business of helping people.

A meeting of the psychic minds

As previously mentioned, the plot of "Days of Future Past" hinges upon Wolverine (with some help from Kitty Pryde) transferring his mind to his younger self to prevent a very dark possible future. Since Jackman's character is apparently the only mutant capable of performing this task, the last scene in the trailer is a little confusing. Obviously a key scene in the film, Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) comes face-to-face with his younger self (James McAvoy) and begs him to "hope again." How this scenario comes about and whether hope is what the "X-Men" need to avert disaster remains to be seen, but the prospect of watching the two Xavier's meet is sure to get hardcore fans excited.

The New Mutants

Along with scenes featuring our favourite X-characters past and present, the “Days of Future Past” trailer also includes brief shots of some new mutants joining the on-screen X-Men universe: Bishop (Omar Sy), Blink (Fan Bingbing), Sunspot (Adan Canto), and Warpath (Booboo Stewart). So what can these previously unseen mutants do? Bishop can absorb and direct any kind of energy (including conductive, radiant, kinetic, psychic, and magical energies) effectively making him invulnerable, Blink can teleport people or objects at will, Sunspot can convert solar energy into powers like super strength and flight, and Warpath possesses superhuman speed, strength, reflexes, and senses.

There you have it: time travel and more mutants (and more Hollywood star power) than you can shake a stick at. Did you spot anything cool in the "Days of Future Past" trailer that we might have missed? Let us know in the comments.

"X-Men: Days of Future Past" hits theatres on May 23, 2014.