Simon Kinberg on DAYS OF FUTURE PAST and his regrets with THE LAST STAND.

X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST writer and producer Simon Kinberg appeared at WonderCon to discuss the upcoming film and preview footage from the film, which consisted of the latest trailer and an extended version of the previously released opening battle sequence.

Via Collider:

Creating rules for time travel:

“It was the trickiest part of the screenplay. Everybody wanted to be as true to science as possible even though time travel’s obviously not real. James Cameron actually gave us some advice and some evidence for how to do time travel. We set up rules early on in the beginning of the film and we stick with them for the entirety of the [running time].”

Staying true to the essence of the classic storyline:

“[The pressure’s] totally daunting. I was a huge fan [of the Days of Future Past] story growing up. This and Dark Phoenix were probably my favorite stories – and we didn’t do so well with Dark Phoenix. This film is our attempt to make up for the past.”

Involving the X-Men in historical events:

“We wanted to make the president more of a character. There are scenes between Richard Nixon and the mutants. There’s a pretty important scene between Nixon and Bolivar Trask. Some of the Watergate tapes that went missing may have something to do with the mutants.”

Click here to read more of what Kinberg had to say, including a spoilerific description of what you didn’t see in the opening battle sequence footage.