And Wonder Woman as well with her appearing in Dawn of Justice- and being generally well-received by the audience- before her solo film.
I'm curious whether the decision to have this either in the past or present will be decided by Fox or Boone and the writers. Ideally, if McAvoy and Shipp are to appear, the new class could appear and just have the main X-Men off on some mission or appear here and there so we're not left wondering where they are, giving them a chance to interact with the new mutants.
Though if it's in the present, that could also work, given how Days of Future Past ended, but then that would probably require some of the original cast returning- unless they pull a Deadpool and joke how no one else is around.