<em>Days Of Future Past</em> was a 'final goodbye' for original actors

Los Angeles  - X-Men Days Of Future Past was a "final goodbye" for the original actors.

Screenwriter Simon Kinberg insists the latest instalment of the Marvel adventure, which stars Sir Patrick Stewart as the older Charles Xavier who he first played in the original X-Men trilogy, Sir Ian McKellen as the villain Magneto and Shawn Ashmore as Iceman, was the final wave to these actors portrayals of the iconic characters.

Talking to The Hollywood Reporter, he said: "We approached it as a final goodbye for the original actors. But to be totally candid, that's the way I approached X-Men: The Last Stand. If you talked to me in 2006 and said, 'Do you think we'll ever see Patrick Stewart as Professor Xavier again? Do you think we'll see Ian and Halle and Ellen Page and Shawn Ashmore back on screen together?' I most likely would have said no, and certainly in the case of Patrick Stewart I would have said no way."

Although in some ways he'll miss McKellen, Ashmore and Stewart's unique take on the comic book characters the film acted as a conclusion to their story.

He added: "There's some part of our brains that hopes we will see them again, but we wanted to tell a story that felt like it was a conclusion to their stories."

Watch the cast do impressions of each other here: