Director Bryan Singer is returning to the X-Men franchise with this summer’s star-studded X-Men: Days of Future Past, and if things go his way this won’t be his last foray with the X-Men universe. A few months ago, Singer made the surprising announcement that 20th Century Fox was already moving forward with a Days of Future Past follow-up called X-Men: Apocalypse, which now has a release date of May 27, 2016. Little is known about Apocalypse other than the fact that it will focus more on the First Class cast rather than the Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart versions of the characters, but we do know that Singer intends to take the helm of Apocalypse as well. Additionally, he’s brought on X2 scribes Dan Harris and Michael Dougherty to help pen the script alongside DOFP writer Simon Kinberg.
Singer recently spoke a bit about X-Men: Apocalypse, confirming that he intends to direct the pic and revealing that the follow-up will explore the deep origins of mutants. Hit the jump for more, including whether we can expect a tease of Apocalypse in DOFP.
Speaking with EW, Singer confirmed that he’s currently in negotiations to direct X-Men: Apocalypse:
“I’m co-writing the story and I’m producing it. I’m negotiating to direct. We’re in the process. We’re trying to figure it out, schedules. My desire would be to direct it.”
The filmmaker is currently pulling double-duty, finishing up post-production on Days of Future Past while prepping the screenplay for Apocalypse. Even so, he says he hasn’t fully decided whether DOFP will include a tease for Apocalypse:
“I’m still deciding [whether Days of Future Past will feature an Apocalypse tease]. Something that happens in this movie causes what’s going to happen in that movie.”
In other words, expect something. As for what the story for X-Men: Apocalypse entails, Singer says the film will delve into mutant origins:
“It will also address historical mutant-cy, meaning the deep past, mutant origins and things like that. It’s something that’s always intrigued me when we think about our Gods and our history and miracles and powers.”
This isn’t an incredibly surprising notion, given that in the comics the titular Apocalypse was an immortal mutant—possibly the first ever—who had his roots in ancient Egypt. Hopefully we’ll have a better idea of what to expect once we’ve seen Days of Future Past, but for now this is pretty exciting stuff. X-Men: Days of Future Past opens May 23rd.
