Actor Peter Dinklage recently wrapped his role as scientist Bollivar Trask in ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’ and has returned to Ireland to film the fourth season of ‘Game of Thrones.’  But before he left for the land of Westeros, he took the time to clarify the perception of his character which has been widely described as being the “main villain” of the movie, which combines two generations of X-Men opposing Trask’s inventions, the Sentinels.

“I didn’t want to play the villain,” Dinklage explained. “He’s a man of science. He’s a man of invention. He actually sees what he’s doing as a good thing — [his ambition is] definitely blind and he’s quite arrogant. He’s strove all his life for a certain respect and attention.”

So while Trask may ultimately be the biggest threat to the X-Men in this movie, it sounds like Dinklage approached his character from a place of ambiguity, not unlike the character of Magneto who views himself as a liberator of his people.  Trask sees the existence of mutants as leading to the extinction of the human race and he his striving to prevent that.  Unfortunately, in the comic books, his giant robots lead to a a bleak, dystopian future, where mutants are hunted down and either killed or locked up in concentration camps.  The movie involves Wolverine’s attempt to alter history to save his future.

Dinklage also discussed the period setting of his portion of the movie smirkingly stating. “He’s up against Richard Nixon.  He’s got some hurdles.”

Also in an antagonistic role is Josh Helman as William Stryker.

Dinklage and Helman are opposed in the film by Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry, Anna Paquin, Ellen Page, Shawn Ashmore and Daniel Cudmore  from the original ‘X-Men’ trilogy and James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult and Lucas Till from ‘X-Men: First Class.’  Also entering the fray are newcomers Evan Peters as Quicksilver, Booboo Stewart as Warpath, Omar Sy as Bishop, Adam Canto as Sunspot and Bingbing Fan as Blink.

‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’ arrives in theaters on May 23rd, 2014.

Source EW