Based on the weekend box office and considering today is a holiday here in the States, I have to assume a lot of you have now seen X-Men: Days of Future Past and those that have are probably wondering who the guy is in the film’s post credits scene. First off, I didn’t know who it was myself and had to ask Tim Hall, a friend and fellow film blogger here in Seattle, on my way out of the theater the very question in the headline.
Here’s how that conversation went:
Who was that at the end?
Apocalypse.
I know it’s from X-MEN: APOCALYPSE, but who was it?
It was Apocalypse.
Oh, that’s the character’s name?
Yeah, he basically wants to destroy everything.
That was a “he”?
[laughs] Yeah.
Oh, I thought it was a girl.
So, with that we’ve established the character’s name is Apocalypse, therefore meaning the sequel to Days of Future Past, the already announced X-Men: Apocalypse, is titled based on the film’s villain, whom we see in the post credits sequence proving the Egyptians weren’t so advanced after all when it comes to building the pyramids. It also tells us this guy is pretty old.
Also, within the scene, we hear a crowd of people chanting “En Sabah Nur,” which means “The First One” and is also the name for Apocalypse who was first introduced in 1986’s “X-Factor” comics.
He was found as an infant in ancient Egypt by a band of nomads who taught him to be strong in order to survive, ingraining in him the idea “the strong will survive,” shaping his actions throughout time. He fell into slavery under the Grand Vizier Ozymandias, rebeled, was killed and resurrected due to his mutant powers and soon discovered Rama Tut’s technology underneath Egypt allowing him to regenerate over time.
The guy has dealings throughout time including the discovery of alien technology, involvement in the 12th century Crusades, a spat with Cyclops and Phoenix in 19th century England and so forth. I have no idea how (or if) any of that will play into the film, but based on the appearance of the four men on horses in the post credits scene it would seem logical his Horsemen of Apocalypse (mutants who either willingly volunteer or are abducted and manipulated into the service of Apocalypse) will play a role. In the comics, one such mutant that fell into his services was Angel (played by Ben Foster in X-Men: The Last Stand) who became the Horseman of Death. Even Wolverine became the Horseman of Death at one point.
As for where the character will go in X-Men: Apocalypse, director Bryan Singer has already told Total Film the film will be set in the ’80s and may feature some familiar characters as their younger selves:
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.
X-Men: Days of Future Past and Apocalypse screenwriter Simon Kinberg recently spoke with IGN about the disaster epic Apocalypse will be saying:
The thing that we’ve spent the most time talking about is not just the visual execution of the character, which is its own challenge – creating a character that’s the most powerful I think of any mutant villain that we’ve seen in the X-Men movies so far. More powerful than Magneto.
The kind of scope and scale we’re talking about is like disaster movie, extinction level event. Sort of Roland Emmerich-style moviemaking, which you’ve never seen in an X-Men movie, or any superhero movie, which I think is exciting.
But we’ve also been talking about how to give him a real emotional and philosophical underpinning. So he’s not just somebody who’s out there destroying the world because he can. What he’s doing is – in his mind – justified and validated by a real compelling, coherent philosophy. He tries to proselytize and convert people – maybe some of our most familiar characters – to come to his cause.
Of course, with this idea of disaster movie making also comes the issue of creating tension where there is none. As Singer also told Total Film, “I call these movies in-between-quels. It’s a mind-fuck, sometimes, in terms of where things fall in the timeline!” He’s right, but at the same time, if they fall in-between stories we already have heard where is the tension if we already know how things will end up?
Days of Future Past dealt with this in some ways as we knew who would die and who would not. Was there ever any doubt Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) wasn’t going to die with a bunch of rebar stuffed in his drowning body? No, but I felt Singer and Kinberg did a great job making a film about the central characters and their morals and motivations that the tensions existed between them rather than relying on whether or not they lived or died.
Something Days of Future Past also did well was focus on the main characters rather than developing backstories for characters that hardly mattered. It will be interesting to see how they tackle Apocalypse, how much back-story they give him considering the wealth of back-story available for a mutant that spans back to ancient Egypt.
As for who will be in the film, Kinberg told The Daily Beast, “It will focus primarily on the First Class cast, but it will certainly have some of the original cast involved, too.”
It will be a while before we get answers to most any questions related to the plot considering X-Men: Apocalypse doesn’t hit theaters until May 27, 2016, so you have a few years to speculate on how it will all play out and just how exactly Channing Tatum will fit into the whole thing as Gambit before they develop the spin-off with him as the New Orleans-based mutant. One storyline involving Gambit has him seeking out Apocalypse, hoping to be a mole for the X-Men only to become twisted by Apocalypse instead. Could that be where things go?
