X-Men: Apocalypse News

As we are just on the brink of getting our mitts on the new X-Men film in 2014 – X-Men: Days of Future Past, it is hard to see how our hopes could possibly be risen any more. Well the most recent news from the X-Men world is that in 2016 we are going to get one of the most powerful villains in all of the Marvel universe…’Apocalypse’.

It seems as if after The Avengers franchise introduced us to ‘Thanos’, who is going to be their villain in the third Avengers film. Then 20th Century Fox want to use their own ultimate super villain story line. As Thanos was taken, the next best choices would be ‘Galactus’ and Apocalypse, but because the latter is one of the most powerful beings in all the universe he seems like the appropriate choice.

To make things even better, the person attached to directing the eighth instalment to the X-Men franchise is none other than Bryan Singer himself, the man behind X-Men (2000), X2: X-Men United (2003) and the upcoming X-Men: Days of Future Past. Now although it maybe a bit too early to give speculations on how good X-Men: Apocalypse will be, I think it is fairly safe to say that with it in Singer’s hands it will be quite an amazing super hero flick.

For those of you not familiar with the grey-skinned villain known as Apocalypse, let’s just say he’s the alpha of the super villains. His original name was ‘En Sabah Nur’, and he was born in Egypt during the times of the Pharaohs. Often thought of as the first ever mutant, he discovered alien technology which he used to his advantage to rule over many civilisations throughout history. Believing in the idea of survival of the fittest, he has slaughtered and defeated many foes throughout his years. What really gives Apocalypse his terrifying reputation are his numerous powers which have led him to defeat the X-Men (amongst other super teams) on various occasions.

These include being able to project and absorb energy, being telekinetic and telepathic, being technopathic – which means he can directly interface with technology and he can change his own molecular structure. Which means he can make himself as flexible, strong and tall as he wants, along with being able to transform his limbs into whatever he likes, such as weapons. He can also regenerate, can adapt to make himself immune to any climate or disease and can give himself any superhuman powers. On top of all that he is also immortal and a scientific genius in areas like physics, biology, engineering and genetics. So yes, he is kind of a big deal in the Marvel universe. How the X-Men can possibly hope to defeat him is beyond me, but I can’t wait to see how they try.

There is a bit of news on what is in the future for Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, although Jackman’s contract with Fox runs out after X-Men: Days of Future Past he has said that he is eager to make another wolverine film with James Mangold – the director of The Wolverine (2013). However he says only if it is an amazing film which is worth releasing, as he wants to give the fans everything they want.

So the future of the X-Men is looking pretty busy.

New X-Men: Days of Future Past Trailer

After The Wolverine concluded with a clip hinting at the next chapter in the X-Men franchise, and left us with that very delicious taste in our mouths for more. We have been gagging for any single scrap of information about the 2014 instalment – X-Men: Days of Future Past, and now we have it. In the form of a 2:18 trailer, which was released on Tuesday 29th October.

The film – which is gearing up to be the greatest X-Men film yet due to it being directed by Bryan Singer (X-MEN/X-2) and written by Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass/X-Men: First Class) – is bringing back all of our favourite heroes, from both ends of the film spectrum. Meaning that we get the young band of newbies from 2011s X-Men: First Class and the older more experienced heroes from the original trilogy, along some new ones such as Quicksilver, Bishop, Blink and Sunspot.

From the looks of the trailer, the plot seems to be a much darker one than we have seen so far. As the title suggests, it is a time travel story line, which will see Logan travelling back through time to warn our younger and more hairy Professor X about the impending doom which the mutants face at the hands of the Sentinels (robots designed by humans to hunt down mutants). So once again the fate of mutant-kind rests on Logan’s shoulders, although, as Magneto says “side by side to end this war, before it ever begins”. Letting us know that both the X-Men and the brotherhood of evil mutants will be joining forces to stop this foe.

Although the full reason why Logan needs to persuade the young Charles Xavier to get on board is not yet known, it is clear that the character has many different ideas to his older counterpart. It will be great to see how James McAvoy and Patrick Stewart portray him so differently.

2014 can not come quick enough.