Oscar Isaac on X-Men’s Apocalypse: “He won’t be everyone’s favorite version”

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

The physical depiction of Oscar Isaac's X-MEN: APOCALYPSE villain has been the topic of some debate ever since the first images trickled online, with many fans unfavourably comparing him to Power Rangers villain Ivan Ooze. The recently released first trailer for X-MEN: APOCALYPSE has calmed some of those fears, but Oscar Isaac himself is cautioning fans that his version of Apocalypse won't necessarily be everyone's favourite version. The actor spoke with Black Film about the upcoming X-Men film and touched on all the various versions of the titular villain.

There’s X-Factor, there’s X-Men, there’s The Age of Apocalypse, there’s the animated series, there’s X-Men: Evolution, so when someone says Apocalypse without referring a comic book, it’s a very general question. They may want to state which is their Apocalypse first. He’s definitely not going to be everyone’s favorite version of Apocalypse, but he’s my favorite version of Apocalypse. It’s something from the 80s mixed in with something new. They either create a backstory that he was this mutant from Ancient Egypt that found this technology and they explore that story or they send him to another universe where he’s more powerful than he’s ever been. He’s turned all these other X-Men into villains. There are different ways that artists and creative people get the chance to explore his story on a massive scale if they do. In this one, Bryan Singer and Simon Kinberg took the inspiration from many different sources, many different versions of Apocalypse throughout the ages and found the one that we thought was the most interesting.

When you have a character like Apocalypse who has been around for quite some time (both in our universe and the X-Men's), it's understandably difficult to bring all that history together in order to create something that the fans will all love. I'm still a little hesitant whether it will work out, but any doubts I have are overshadowed by my faith in Oscar Isaac as an actor. Isaac also brings with him a degree of knowledge about the character and the X-Men as he grew up collecting issues of the series.

I love Apocalypse. I grew up collecting X-Factor. I remember when the first comic book came out, and for me, especially because I grew up in a religious household, I knew about the book of revelations, the second coming, the Apocalypse, and then you see this comic book character that is supposed to embody all of these ideas. For some people they just thought he was this big blue guy and it was survival of the fittest, but for me, that was less interesting. The most interesting part for me was the Blibical aspect and end of the world and the revelation of the way things were before.

X-MEN: APOCALYPSE isn't the only giant franchise that Oscar Isaac can count himself a part of, he'll also be appearing in STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS as Poe Dameron. Lucky bastard.

It’s great because they are so vastly different from each other. They are completely different characters. I’m just having fun at this time and I’m really thankful and blessed that I’m getting the opportunities to play different roles and let’s people know that they never know what to expect from me. I’m very excited. We’ll see how many people realize that Apocalypse and Poe are the same person.

X-MEN: APOCALYPSE opens in theaters on May 27, 2016.