Even before X-Men: Days of Future Past hits theaters on May 23, Fox has already dated X-Men: Apocalypse, the third film in this latest trilogy that began with X-Men: First Class, for May 27, 2016. No information is available in terms of which cast members will be back, though obvious names such as Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy and Jennifer Lawrence are expected and while no director has been named, Days of Future Past helmer Bryan Singer did partake in the announcement of the new date on Twitter if that means anything. Then again, I’m sure he’ll, at the very least, be a producer on the project, so make of it what you will.
[amz asin=”0785159827″ size=”small”]According to Wikipedia, Apocalypse (pictured above) is an ancient mutant that first appeared in X-Factor #5 (May 1986), created by writer Louise Simonson and designed by artist Walter Simonson.
Next up, Fox recently hired screenwriter Simon Kinberg (First Class, Days of Future Past) to a three-year deal in an effort to help them develop their Marvel properties — X-Men and Fantastic Four — into a “Marvel style” universe. Kinberg was also involved in scripting Josh Trank‘s upcoming The Fantastic Four (6/19/2015) reboot so this only makes sense.
Kinberg tells The Hollywood Reporter, “I have a lot of ideas on how to build those brands and do what everybody is thinking of these days: Be like Marvel… I want to be able to build stories over multiple movies.”
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the X-Men universe, James Mangold is preparing for more Wolverine with The Wolverine 2, but Hugh Jackman seems to think he might not want to take on another solo venture. After all, if he stars in Apocalypse that would be nine times he’s played the character and, let’s be honest, by the eighth time it’s really time to wonder when enough is enough.
Speaking with Vanity Fair, Jackman said:
“I don’t know whether or not I will do this next movie. I am really proud of [The Wolverine] and I am excited to develop something with Jim Mangold from the beginning because that is a great ride. That’s exciting, to see what we come up with but I have a very high expectation of what it would need to be [for me to star in it] and if it doesn’t reach those, I won’t be doing it.”
To this point we’ve seen what Jackman’s high expectations result in so unless they plan on making this out of construction paper and Lincoln Logs I’m pretty sure we’ll see him screaming at the sky again, blades extended and rain pouring down.
