X-Men Days of Future Past writer Simon Kinsberg reveals why Wolverine travels back in time

One of the major points of contention for some comic book fans about the upcoming superhero blockbuster X-Men: Days of Future Past is that the movie will divert in a pretty significant way from the comic book miniseries of the same name from the 1980s.

In that series, Kitty Pryde goes back in time from a post-apocalyptic future to stop an event that led to the mutant-killing robots called Sentinels. But in the movie, it will be Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) who takes the journey through time. Some fans are pleased with this decision, while others are upset with the movie's departure from the source material.

Either way, Days of Future Past screenwriter Simon Kinsberg told Total Film that the reason for the decision was practical both in terms of the story and in terms of marketing:

"We made the decision for a lot of reasons, some of them obvious and some of them more nuanced, to make it Wolverine who goes back in time. One reason is that he's the protagonist of the franchise, and probably the most beloved character to a mass audience. Probably the bigger reason is that when we started thinking about the logistical realities of Kitty's consciousness being sent back in time, to her younger self, as opposed to her physical body being sent back... it was impossible.

Obviously in the book it's Kitty that's sent back, but because we cast Ellen Page in X-Men: The Last Stand, you're talking about an actress who, in the age of Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy, would have been negative 20 years old. So we started thinking again. The first reflex response to that was a character who doesn't age. Wolverine is the only character who would looks the same in 1973 as he does in the future."

It's a smart move on the film's part to position Jackman front and center, particularly because his latest X-Men film, The Wolverine, was the second highest-grossing movie in the franchise's history earlier this year.