Chances are that if you stuck around for the post-credits scene of X-Men: Days of Future Past, you were probably left wondering who the cloaked guy manipulating ancient Egyptian pyramids was. Maybe you’re a comic book aficionado and already knew who this mysterious mutant was. Either way, he is the oldest and original mutant, Apocalypse, and according to X-Men writer Simon Kinberg, the destruction wrought upon the world will reach the heights of a Roland Emmerich (2012, Independence Day) film in the upcoming sequel, X-Men: Apocalypse.
Recently, Simon conducted a fairly informative interview discussing the backstory and tone for the Apocalypse character, but most importantly, just how he and director Bryan Singer plan on bringing such an and intimidating threat to life from the pages to the silver screen:
We’re definitely approaching him as a super charismatic leader that will draw people to his cause. So far, in the X-Men movies, there really are two leaders. You know, there’s Eric/Magneto and what [Bryan Singer] did with the Brotherhood and Charles/Professor Xavier and what he did with the X-Men. Apocalypse presents a new leader, the darkest leader in the franchise.
Kinberg also mentioned that, while Apocalypse will be the darkest villain yet in the franchise, he won’t be a one-dimensional character fixated on generic goals. Instead, Apocalypse will be manifested as a very complex character, which would definitely follow in the footsteps of the narrative style presented in X-Men: Days of Future Past:
It’s really been about how do we give him [Apocalypse], most importantly, a very human and relatable motivation so that as extreme and insane as his methods are, there is something, you know, understandable, almost empathetic about his motivation.
Kinberg also goes on to discuss the scale of X-Men: Apocalypse, which is reportedly set to be the second- most expensive film Fox has ever produced.
The kind of scope and scale we’re talking about is like disaster movie, extinction level event. Sort of Roland Emmerich-style moviemaking, which you’ve never seen in an X-Men movie, or any superhero movie, which I think is exciting.
X-Men: Days of Future Past is such an example of exceptional filmmaking that it already had us sold for an even bigger film in X-Men: Apocalypse, but after hearing Simon Kinberg spill some tantalizing details, well, I wish I was watching the damn movie right now. I guess for now we’ll just have to tough it out until May 27th, 2016.
