X-Men: Apocalypse is shaping up to be the biggest instalment in the franchise to date, and following Bryan Singer’s triumphant return to the X-Men universe with Days of Future Past, excitement is at an all-time high to see how it plays out.
In a recent interview, the director actually shed some light on where we pick up with the mutant team and seemed to indicate that it sets the stage for many more years worth of stories of stories.
“In First Class, they were kind of a mutant CIA tactical force team, and Days of Future Past was a time travel film that dealt with a specific incident. This, finally, is the movie about how the X-Men were born – not the school, but the X-Men themselves.”
As for his future with the franchise after X-Men: Apocalypse, Singer appeared to indicate that he has no intentions of walking away from these characters, joking that he can see himself “directing these movies till he’s dead.”
“I love these characters. I want to be the guy to pick young Storm, and Jean, and I want to be the guy to pick who Apocalypse is. And to take Magneto into this different place in his life, and to take Raven into this different place in her life. And I want to be the guy to take Xavier’s hair off! That’s me! I don’t want anyone else to do that.”
Of course, as the filmmaker is lining up that long delayed adaptation of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, chances are that he won’t take the helm of the next X-Men movie unless Fox are willing to delay it until 2019 or 2020. However, if X-Men: Apocalypse is an even bigger hit than Days of Future Past, there’s a very good chance they won’t want to wait.
For now, the future of the franchise is unclear, though Gambit is tentatively scheduled for later this year and the final Wolverine movie is set to be released in 2017. X-Men: Apocalypse, meanwhile, will be released this May, and at that point, we should have a much clearer idea of where our favorite mutants are headed over the next couple of years.