Bryan Singer says X-Men: Apocalypse will have “mass destruction”

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

While it seems folks are anxiously awaiting the next installment of in the X-Men franchise with X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST, there’s even more X-citement waiting in the wings as director Bryan Singer moves right into the “inbetweequel” of X-MEN: APOCALYPSE next. While little has been said about the next entry in the franchise, director Bryan Singer has let loose some details to Total Film, giving away the time period and scope of the film. In addition, the magazine also dropped eight more exclusive images from the pic, which you can check out below.

On the setting:

“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!”

On the scope and spectacle of the forthcoming entry:

“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.” As for his process on the 2016 sequel, Singer says, “We’re currently breaking the story. We’re almost ready to go. Dan Harris, michael Dougherty and Simon Kinberg are in the office across the street from me, working on story stuff right now. It’s great to have Dan and Michael back.”

On the X-Men characters that will be featured in APOCALYPSE:

“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-f*ck sometimes in terms of where things fall in the timeline!”

I’m sure the common complaints over “destruction porn” will be tossed around here, but when held up to the comics, it’s pretty damn accurate. I get that some folks can be turned off by it on film, but the source material blows the shit out of everything from urban neighborhoods to entire planets on a weekly basis. There comes a point where you really have to put in perspective what you’re complaining about and this film IS called X-MEN: APOCALYPSE. Having read the comics for more than 20 years now, I’m happy to see them jump into the time-travel, alternate universe, and epic scale stuff as it’s always been a major factor in the books (and continues to be). For me, it’s much more enticing than another fight on top of a U.S. monument.

X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST opens on May 23, 2014 and X-MEN: APOCALYPSE is set for May 27, 2016.