Q: Should this film be looked at as a third part in a trilogy or as another story in a continuing series?

Ratner: Because I am so referential towards the first two, I am not reinventing anything that's already been done but I am informing some back story that maybe you haven't seen but that makes total sense with the first two and we are paying off some of the arcs of the characters and resolving some of the arcs somehow. I don't think it's the final arc. There's a lot of opportunity to go further with it but I think because I am referring to the first two movies, I am making sure that we are consistent with the first two movies so far as the characters are concerned as far as what they went.you know Bryan and these actors have created the universe and there's rules that come with that universe. I am not going outside of those rules but I am looking to show the audience something that kind of pieces it all together like, "Oh that's why in the first movie they were in this location here" and that so it kind of all pays off so in that sense maybe there's a trilogy but not saying Fox wouldn't make a fourth or a fifth X-Men.

McKellen: It can be quite unnerving when you're just going about your business of acting and the director comes up and says don't you remember what you did in the first one? Well with Gandolf in between I can't.but you have been bringing us back all the time sometimes like a schoolteacher with naughty children.

Ratner: It's like déjà vu for me since I wasn't there the first two times

Q: Are you setting things up that you might possibly want to expand upon if given a chance for a future film?

Ratner: You know see I don't have a contract to do X4 and it depends on the performance of this movie if they ask me to come back but, which is the reality, but the truth is I am introducing some characters that I know Fox will be like we gotta put Kitty Pride in X4 we gotta bring them back or I'm setting things up or I'm introducing little things that, whether I am doing it or not, I just love planting those little seeds and bringing things into this movie that for some reason or another Bryan wasn't able to bring in, that only the hardcore fans would really know about, that wouldn't really make a difference to the moviegoer but, for instance, like the fastball special but stuff like that where the fans are gonna be like YEAH! Cheering that for one reason or another they weren't able to make it into X1 or 2.

Q: What's it like coming back to this character again?

Jackman: As an actor?

Q: Yes

Jackman: Well, I'd hope anything in life the more shots you have at it the more confidence you get the more you learn the better you get. I don't want to set myself up for failure but hopefully as an actor I can bring a little more to it but I have an interesting progression for the character in this one and he's archetypally the reluctant hero and much of it's been, will he join the X-Men, will he be a part of it, and so on and that's not so much the case for the third one but more what role will he play, you know, will it be an issue of leadership or not, will he be a real team player, it's not so much is he part of the X-Men, that's kind of a given, the beginning of X-Men 3 is about what role is he going to play and there's a lot at stake. I think for the fans there's going to be a lot of shocks, instilled for the fans.

McKellen: For those of us who get really close to Wolverine, we have to admit that his hair is getting even more gorgeous.

Jackman: Jennifer O'Halloran, yes (laughing)

Q: Brett and Halle , what kind of a story arc did you want for Storm, what were you going for?

Ratner: Like how I said, when I met her for the first time I said, you really, you know there wasn't really a huge presence for you in this movie so far as personality is concerned and I wanted really to define who you were. Give you a point of view because there are two issues in this movie, there's political issues and emotional or uh an emotional storyline and I wanted to make sure, where do you stand on these emotions as a character and I just love photographing Halle Berry so I wanted to put her in the movie as much as I can. But for her, actually to give Halle a lot of credit she's like, when we first talked, she's says, look I don't care about giving me a lot of dialogue, or giving me just, but when I'm on screen I want it to matter, I don't want her to just be there. So I kind of went through the script and looked at the opportunity of really enhancing her character and giving her more of a point of view and a perspective and a purpose. It's hard, like everyone said, to pay off 20 different characters in a film, but Halle understands more going into it, who she is, what her reason for being in each scene is, when there's 20 people standing around it's hard to kind of know, that's the hardest thing just listening and just standing there not knowing what are you doing, what's your point of view. In her mind, I'm speaking for you but, at least she understands what the purpose and the motivation for her is in each scene.

Continue to page 5

X-Men Set Visit Part 1: Page 1) Page 2) Page 3) Page 4) Page 5) Page 6) Page 7)

X-Men 3 Set Visit part 2: Coming Soon

X-Men 3 Set Visit part 3: Coming Soon

X-Men 3 Production Stills: Click Here