It’s become commonplace for big studio tentpoles to tack on an extra scene at the end of the movie teasing either a future character or plot point, and director Bryan Singer’s X-Men: Days of Future Past is no different.  The X-Men franchise has been going (mostly) strong for over a decade now, and Days of Future Past was a massive undertaking from start to finish, combining the original X-Men cast with their younger counterparts from First Class into a big, time-travel heavy feature to thrilling results.  There were a number of different ways Singer and Fox could have gone with the post-credits scene, but the idea they settled on was quite an exciting tease for fans of the franchise.

If you’ve seen Days of Future Past and found yourself scratching your head after the end credits scene, we’ve got you covered.  Hit the jump as we explain exactly what was going on and what it means for the future of the series.  Obviously, spoilers for X-Men: Days of Future Past follow.

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Image by Dave Wilkins via Wiki

So, before we dive in, let’s recap what happened in the post-credits scene.  Singer took us back to ancient Egypt, as we heard a large crowd chanting “En Sabah Nur” while a hooded figure appeared to be assembling the pyramids, much to the awe of his onlookers.  The camera panned around as the chanting swelled, and we saw that it was a young boy who was performing this feat.  End of scene.

Months before Days of Future Past was released, 20th Century Fox went ahead and announced the sequel, X-Men: Apocalypse.  The film is dated for a May 27, 2016 release, and Bryan Singer is attached to direct once again with Simon Kinberg and X2 scribes Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris penning the screenplay alongside Singer.  The title of the film tells us a lot about its source material, as “Apocalypse” is the name of a supervillain from the comics who also turns out to be the first mutant in history.

The shrouded figure we see in the post-credits scene is, in fact, the titular Apocalypse, as “En Sabah Nur” happens to be the boy’s name.  In the comics, the character is a 5,000 year-old mutant who has a litany of powers, including massive strength, the ability to fly, teleport, create force-fields, change his body’s form at will, creative huge blasts of energy, etc.  He also happens to be immortal.  Essentially, this guy is nothing but bad news for the X-Men.

Singer and Kinberg have previously spoke about their approach to Apocalypse, saying that their sequel will deal with the notion of ancient mutants, specifically how people would react thousands of years ago to seeing a mutant.  The answer, it turns out, is to treat them like gods.

X-Men: Apocalypse will return the franchise’s focus to the younger characters (ie. Fassbender, McAvoy, Lawrence, Hoult, and Jackman), taking place in the 1980s, but we don’t yet know how Apocalypse figures into the plot.  He’s immortal so he’s been around for a while, but it’s possible that this new timeline that was created in Days of Future Past paves the way for Apocalypse to come in and assume his reign over humanity with the Sentinels now out of the way.

The scale of Days of Future Past was very, very large, but Singer has promised that X-Men: Apocalypse will be the biggest X-Men movie yet.  The post-credits scene was certainly an intriguing tease, and I’m excited to see how Apocalypse figures into the franchise in this next film.

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