One of the highlights of X-Men: First Class for me was the way it dealt directly with the tumultuous history of the early 60s, from the Cuban Missile Crisis that forms the background of the climactic finale to the budding Civil Rights movement that parallels what will become Magneto's efforts toward mutant acceptance. Civil rights have always been the metaphorical spine of the franchise-- stories about people who aren't accepted by society as their true selves-- and could become an even more significant part of potential sequels.
Talking to The LA Times, the movie's producer Bryan Singer spitballed some ideas about historical events that could come into play in an X-Men: First Class sequel, and focused on the civil rights movement as a particularly interesting story to give a mutant spin:
"I don't know if every movie has to be a history lesson. But there's a lot of history to cover. If we sequelized this, it could inhabit a whole world of the 20th century. When [First Class] happened, Kennedy had not been assassinated and the Vietnam War hadn't happened yet. […] What's really interesting about the '60s setting is the civil rights movement."
Singer gave no indication in the interview that he'd return to direct a new film, and given that First Class director Matthew Vaughn seems pretty invested in the franchise I imagine he'd want the job. But Singer was also intimately involved in the prequel to the two X-Men films he directed, and continues to be sort of the spiritual leader of the farnchise, even if he also admits that X3: The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine dropped the ball: "Wolverine told a story, but it didn't always feel like a story that was very essential or interesting."
The real hurdle for a First Class sequel, as with all sequels, is going to be money. The movie opened last weekend to a solid-but-unspectacular $55 million, and though it stands at $144 million worldwide after less than a week in release, it's not the kind of megahit that automatically gets a sequel greenlit. Singer is probably talking about sequel possibilities in order to drum up interest in them-- I'm not sure discussing other historical parallels is exactly the way to rally huge audiences, but it's got me interested at least. Any other events from the 60s and 70s you guys want to see him include in the next X-Adventure?
