Shawn Ashmore played the superhero Iceman in the original X-Men trilogy, and is "contracted" for another but is still waiting to make another appearance. Ashmore has previously stated that he doesn't think X-Men 4 will ever get made, and likely won't appear in the upcoming X-Men: First Class. That didn't stop Ashmore from telling Movieline how happy he was to see director Bryan Singer return to the X-Men franchise to work on First Class.
I'm so excited. There was a weird transition between X-Men 2 and X-Men 3 because Bryan left and Brett Ratner came on. Ultimately it turned out to be a great thing, but it was kind of bizarre because Bryan had cast everyone and we'd all done two movies with him. It was bittersweet — it was nice to see Bryan go on and make Superman [Returns], and it was nice to have new blood and a new perspective from Brett coming in to work on thefilm. Bryan is clearly very, very passionate about the X-Men films and the characters, so you know he's going to a good job with whatever the story's going to be.
In the comic books, the character of Iceman is a member of the First Class team, alongside Cyclops, Jean Gray, Beast, and Angel. However, the time line of the X-Men movies put a teenage Iceman alongside adult versions of the original team. Ashmore remains undaunted that he can eventually return for another X-Men one day.
It'd be awesome to do another X-Men film, and it's too badthat there probably won't be a role for me [in First Class, but who knows? The universe is huge and they keep making those films. You never know — hopefully, I'll get the chance to play Iceman one more time.
Posted 01.16.10 by Ryan