X-Men: Days of Future Past is the seventh movie in the X-Men film series, and, more damningly, the fourth since they called one The Last Stand.  If this were a slasher series, this would be around the time they sent Wolverine into space.

Instead, the franchise is heading back into its past, with the director and much of the great cast of the first (and still best) two movies. Our first look at Bryan Singer’s latest entry just came online this morning.

The first two things you’re likely to notice are the tone (it’s very somber, with music from Sunshine and then Hans Zimmer) and the plot. More to the point, the plot here seems a little convoluted, but it apparently involves Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine going back in time, where he confronts our heroes’ younger selves and tries to prevent some horrible possible future. In other words, it’s the kind of plot that could use a diagram with straws: Time paradoxes have made for plenty of fun at the movies in the past, and it’s usually their being so convoluted that’s part of the fun.

Just as significantly, the trailer focuses on the characters—with a cast like this, how could you not?—and on the character-based decisions they’ll make, without a single money shot of a giant robot or a city exploding. The giant robots, fans can be assured, will come later, but for now it’s nice to see that they’re actually trying to make us care about our heroes before the robots stomp down on them. We’ll see how this turns out, but for now that should be enough to make fans listen to Professor X’s plea to “hope again.”

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