Bryan Singer is reportedly in talks to direct X-Men 2, and told the Comics Continuum Web site that he's hoping to add new characters to the sequel to this year's hit X-Men.

"Gambit and Beast are two characters I miss terribly," Singer said. "Beast was in the [first X-Men] script for a while, but then when you've got Mystique with nine hours of makeup and these challenges, you have to choose your battles."

Singer added, "But there are many characters we'd like to have, from Nightcrawler to Proteus to Gambit. Some interesting characters. Some which might translate well to film, and some which might not as easily and some that won't translate until technology advances another 20 years."

The Continuum also reported that the upcoming DVD release of X-Men contains character designs for Beast and Blob, who did not make it to the final cut.

Currently, all of the major cast members of X-Men are signed for the sequel, in which production could begin hopefully sometime next year.