2014 will be a good year for sequels as Fox, in a press release, announced today the opening for the follow up films to ‘X-Men: First Class’ and ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes.’

The first of the two sequels to arrive in theaters that year will be ‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.’ Returning to helm the project is Rupert Wyatt, the same director who helmed the original ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes.’ Not too long ago we reported that Scott Z. Burns (‘Contagion’) would be doing rewrites to the script for ‘Dawn’ and that the movie would focus on the apes’ path to emerge as society’s new rulers and the virus that is destroying human society. In order to make sure their star “ape“ would be available for the sequel, Fox had offered Andy Serkis a 7 figure deal to reprise his role as Caesar.

‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’ is slated to be released on Memorial Day weekend, May 23, 2014.

The sequel film without a current title, ‘X-Men: First Class 2,’ is to be released later in the summer, July 18, 2014. Matthew Vaughn returns to direct based on a script by Simon Kinberg (‘Sherlock Holmes,’ ‘X-Men: The Last Stand’). Magneto (Michael Fassbender) and the X-Men team (James McAvoy, Nicholas Hoult, and Jennifer Lawrence to name a few) will be back in full force. Filming is scheduled to begin in the beginning of next year as Lawrence will be filming ‘Catching Fire’ before then.

Both sequels will be following yet another big tent pole release in the form of Steven Spielberg’s movie ‘Robopocalypse’. The film was originally slated to be released on July 3, 2013 but has been moved to April 25, 2014. In its previous place, the 3D version of ‘Independence Day’ will be released instead.

So mark your calendars everyone, as it looks like we may have another great year for science fiction films much like this year has been!