In Shawn Ashmore returns to the role of Bobby “Iceman” Drake for the first time since 2006’s “X-Men: The Last Stand.” And based on the newest trailer, which featured the debut of Drake’s iconic ice-slide move, fans can expect cooler Iceman action than previous films allowed.
“In ‘X3,’ I turned into Iceman for the first time,” Ashmore told MTV News in an interview earlier this month while promoting “The Following,” his Fox TV series co-starring Kevin Bacon. “I had made ice-balls, and an ice-rose for Rogue at one point, but full Iceman mode [debuted in] the battle against Pyro in ‘The Last Stand.’ Fans can definitely look forward to more of that.”
Ashmore teases that Iceman isn’t the only original X-Man getting an action upgrade, too. According to the actor, “Days of Future Past” features a grander scale than ever seen before in an “X-Men” film, both in terms of the set pieces and the storytelling.
“The general scale of the storytelling is huge. It’s massive. I walked onto some of the sets on the first day and it was the size of a football field. The whole set, you can interact on, like a battlefield, essentially,” he said. “Now that we know these characters, we either love or hate them, depending on which side we’re on. Now you can really open it up to bigger storytelling and bigger action because you understand these characters. There are higher stakes. You can put these people in danger because you care about them.”
The Iceman actor credits that expanded scale to the return of director Bryan Singer, the man who “started this journey.”
“It’s nice to come back and have that same director,” said Ashmore. “There’s a trust. I know how important this movie is to him.”
If “Days of Future Past” is important to fans of Bobby Drake and Rogue’s romance, however, they’re going to walk away disappointed. Anna Paquin was cut from the film late last year, presumably impacting Iceman’s storyline as well.
“There was a storyline that had this great sequence with Rogue,” he said. “Remnants of those story lines still interact with some of the other characters, so I can’t give anything away.”
Even without Rogue, Ashmore promised that Iceman will have screen-time with other fan-favorite heroes and villains, including Ian McKellen’s Magneto and Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine.
“I’ve been playing Bobby for thirteen years. This is my fourth movie playing Iceman,” he said. “It’s amazing.”
“X-Men: Days of Future Past” opens on May 23.
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