Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen speak openly about James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender in 'X-Men: Days of Future Past'

Time travel is a major part of Bryan Singer's May 2014 superhero blockbuster X-Men: Days of Future Past. Fans likely know by now that Patrick Stewart and James McAvoy play older and younger versions of Professor Charles Xavier, respectively, while, Sir Ian McKellen and Michael Fassbender do the same for Magneto. The elder statesmen of the X-Men franchise gave an interview in which they spoke candidly about their younger counterparts.

The Wall Street Journal asked the two actors if they synced their performances with McAvoy's and Fassbender's.

"No, it's up to them to sync with us," McKellen joked before Stewart added, "We came first."

McKellen revealed in the interview that Magneto and Young Magneto do not meet in the movie. "I just stay by myself and I never meet my younger self," the actor put it. He also said that he and Fassbender did not have any discussions before the movie because they wanted to differentiate the two portrayals.

But Stewart said the two versions of Professor X do in fact get very close together, as seen in the trailer for the film.

"James and I come not just face-to-face, but nose-to-nose almost," he said. "There was certainly a happy charm about it, in that when we shot that scene, it was James' first day of work on the movie and it was my last day. So I was saying goodbye to X-Men, and he was saying hello."

The two actors also discussed the recently announced 2016 sequel X-Men: Apocalypse, and both said they had not heard anything about it and joked that that means they're probably not in it. Stewart then joked that "they'll find they need us after all."

Check out the video interview with Stewart and McKellen below: