The next X-Men movie that stars first and second graduating classes of mutants living in a world that hates and fears them isn’t even out yet, and already a sequel is being planned. Bryan Singer will return to direct X-Men: Apocalypse, which will take place after Days of Future Past. And get your ozone-layer killing deodarants, ladies shoulder pads and bad hairstyles ready, because we’re heading to that wacky time known as the 1980s for the neXt-men film.
Singer spoke to Total Film (via Comic Book Movie) and said the following about the 2016 sequel:
We’re going to deal the the notion of ancient mutants – the fact they were born and existed thousands of years ago. But it’ll be a contemporary movie – well, it’ll take place in the ’80s… The ’80s is a period now – it’s hard for me to believe that! ‘Apocalypse’ will have more of the mass destruction that ‘X-Men’ films, to date, have not relied upon. There’s definitely now a character and a story that allow room for that kind of spectacle.
Asked about the characters who’ll be responsible for all that upcoming destruction, Singer explained that a few familiar characters were on the way:
I don’t want to get too specific, but we’ll introduce familiar characters in a younger time. That’ll be fun to show the audience. I call these movies in-between-quels. It’s a mind-fuck, sometimes, in terms of where things fall in the timeline!
Even though it’s still more than two years away, Singer is looking to do more X-work in the future:
Yeah, there actually are [more stories I want to tell]. It all stems back to when I did [the first] X-Men. You always want to know where a character’s going to go, what their future’s going be like. You can always sequelise. But on that film I also had actors asking ‘Who am I? Where did my character come from?’ So as a director you always need a backstory to give your actors. It may not be the right backstory, but it’s one you can give the actor to help them understand their character. These prequels are really exciting for me because they give me a chance to explore ideas I came up with more than a decade ago.
Not long to go now. We’re heading into superhero season this year, with X-Men: Days of Future Past arriving on May 23.
Last Updated: March 17, 2014
