The future is now -- at least where levitating wheelchairs as used by the film industry is concerned. During a Reddit AMA session held earlier today, Patrick Stewart revealed that the futuristic wheelchair he used in the post-apocalyptic portions of "X-Men: Days of Future Past" was not merely green screen trickery.

"Great costumes in every film, but I loved my superhero costume and my flying chair in 'Days of Future Past,'" said Stewart. "The chair actually levitated, but only a few inches."

The chair itself was most likely loosely based on the hovering wheelchair introduced into the comics by Jim Lee in 1991's "X-Men" #1. The big, yellow, levitating wheelchair was then used in the X-Men cartoon of the early '90s, where it became synonymous with the character for a generation of fans.

Stewart's Charles Xavier used a more traditional wheelchair in the first X-Men trilogy. That changed for the sequences of 2014's "X-Men: Days of Future Past" set in the near future.

It's possible we could see more of Stewart's favorite levitating wheelchair if his involvement in "Wolverine 3" pans out. The actor has stated that he has a part to play in the film, which opens on March 3, 2017.