Shawn Ashmore and Anna Paquin

Fox's "X-Men: Days of Future Past" is welcoming three more alumni of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters.

Director Bryan Singer announced this afternoon that original trilogy veterans Shawn Ashmore, Ellen Page and Anna Paquin will reprise their roles in the sequel to 2011's "X-Men: First Class." They'll join returning franchise stars Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen in what likely will be limited roles in scenes depicting a dystopian alternative future.

Ashmore and Paquin played Iceman and Rogue in all three original "X-Men" movies (the first two of which were directed by Singer), while Page was introduced as Kitty Pryde in 2006's "X-Men: The Last Stand."

"X-Men: Days of Future Past" takes it name from the classic 1981 Marvel comics story by Chris Claremont and John Byrne that portrayed a timeline created by the X-Men's failure to prevent the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants from assassinating a U.S. senator. In that alternate future, the giant robotic Sentinels have become the de facto rulers of the United States, where mutants are hunted down and placed in internment camps.

Opening July 18, 2014, "X-Men: Days of Future Past" stars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence and Nicholas Hoult. January Jones, who played Emma Frost in "First Class," revealed this week that she's hasn't been contacted to appear in the sequel.