Petitions have become a bit of the rage lately, it’s a quick and easy way for large groups of people to get their point across, such as the current petition to cancel Avengers Arena. They can also be just for fun, like my favorite, the petition to the US Government to build a Death Star.

The latest petition I’ve come across is for Bryan Singer to have James Marsden reprise his role as Cyclops for Days of Future Past. Here is what it has to say:

The fans of X-men would like to see James Marsden return to the screen in the next X-men First Class: Days of Future past film as Cyclops. We are hoping to get Bryan Singer to see that there are still Cyclops fans out there that want to see him return. Especially with Cyclops being the leader of X-men! Since James Marsden left with Bryan Singer to do Superman and that’s the reason Cyclops was given an untimely ending, we think it’s only fair to see James Marsden reprise his role! Please sign so we can take notice of the return that his character deserves!

Certainly no one will claim that Cyclops was given anything close to a great role in the X-Men movies. Then when Marsden was unavailable for X3 he was given one of the most pointless death scenes of all time. So what would be achieved by bringing him back?

Everything.

The comic Days of Future Past is about time travel and changing the future. We don’t know at this time if the DOFP movie is supposed to change things so that the original movies happen… or change things so that the original movies didn’t happen. All we know is that there will be an apocalyptic type world in the future which could easily be post-X3 and that is what needs to be stopped from happening. It’s very possible that in doing so they change things so either just X3 doesn’t happen, or X2, 3 or X1,2,3.  Or, those movies remain untouched altogether. Anything goes right now, especially when considering that The Wolverine is canon post-x3 and DOFP could affect the continuity of his film.

So, having Cyclops character show up could do one of two things:

• Prove that there is already an alt universe that, by being changed, makes the original movies happen.
• Prove that the original movies are now alt-universe and a new canon universe has been created.

All this is done by just having Cyclops alive either at the beginning (when the time traveler is sent back) or end of the movie (I assume we’ll get a last glimpse of the future unless they want to be cruel and leave it up in the air).

Granted, Cyclops isn’t the only character who died, but he is the most telling. Jean, well, she is known to die and come back so that’s up in the air (plus she might already have come back in The Wolverine). The Professor was already hinted at still being alive. Cyclops would have the most impact as a ‘game changer’.

So the question is… will he be back? Well, there has been no word from Singer who has been making casting announcements via twitter. The thing is, DOFP hasn’t even started filming yet and it’s not like Marsden would have to do much, film wise, so even if he is working on a project he could spare the day or two of filming needed, after all, he did it for his death in X3. So he could literally be brought in at last minute… or even kept ‘hush hush’ as a surprise like with Wolverine in First Class.

If I was going to use Cyclops to show the future had changed that dramatically I would totally try to keep it quiet just to get some zing in at the ending of DOFP.

But if he never planned to bring Cyclops back, would a petition like this make a difference? As I said, there is a long way to go until the cut off time to bring Marsden in for filming. I guess it just depends on how much of an effect a living Cyclops would have on the storyline. In truth, I don’t think it would have any more effect on Singer’s decisions than all the other factors he’d have to look into for doing such a thing. It’s like the peititon to cancel Avengers Arena, Marvel only cares about the bottom line of the sales figures. I’m sure if Singer wanted Cyclops in the movie, or didn’t want Cyclops, then such things have already been decided or at least in the works.

Of course, Singer could also be cheeky about the whole and bring Cyclops into the story… as Alex’s younger brother.