It had been strongly hinted at in late November, but now it's been officially confirmed by Bryan Singer himself: Wolverine (as played by Hugh Jackman) will appear in the sequel to X-Men: First Class, X-Men: Days Of Future Past.

Tweeting the good news to the internet at large, Singer said "I would officially like to welcome @RealHughJackman to the cast of #Xmen Days of Future Past. Very excited! More to come..."

What that "more to come" is remains to be seen, but this news alone will be enough to warm the hearts of hundreds of thousands of X-Men fans who were worried that the adaptation of the iconic run of the Marvel comics, Days Of Future Past, wouldn't include one of the most important characters involved. The question now is how big his role will be...

In case you didn't know already, the comic run in question was written by Chris Claremont, John Byrne and Terry Austin - a storyline partially set in an alternate future where mutants are hunted and killed, with the survivors rounded out by Sentinels (as seen in X-Men: The Last Stand) and kept in a concentration camp. Our younger heroes must stop a key event in order to keep the future from coming true.

With a dual-strand plot so complicated, it's going to be a huge task for director Bryan Singer and writer Simon Kinberg (Sherlock Holmes, Jumper, X-Men: FIrst Class, X-Men: The Last Stand, Star Wars Episodes VIII and IX) to wangle the younger cast (Fassbender, Lawrence, McAvoy et al.) and their plot threads with those of the older guard (McKellen, Stewart, Jackman).

Now we have to wonder who will be next. Could Halle Berry Crop up as Storm? Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler? Anna Paquin’s Rogue? Let the conjecturing commence!

While Days Of Future Past isn’t set to arrive until July 18, 2014, you won’t have to wait that long for your next hit of mutant madness: The Wolverine will be with us on July 25 next year.