Production on director Bryan Singer’s X-Men: Apocalypse will begin in a matter of weeks. The followup to the hugely successful X-Men: Days of the Future Past is rumored to be a full-scale disaster film. Something that fans have yet to see in the X-Men franchise.
After the time travelling antics of Days of Future Past, X-Men: Apocalypse offers an opportunity to give the franchise a fresh start. One of the biggest complaints of the series has been the jumbled continuity and sloppy mishandling of the team’s original members. It appears as if Singer is addressing those issues and is taking the opportunity to assemble a cast of characters that line up with the comic book source material. Aside from Iceman, all of the Stan Lee’s original cast of X-Men, Cyclops (Tye Sheridan), Jean Grey (Sofie Turner), Storm (Alexandra Shipp), Beast (Nicholas Hoult), and Angel will be making appearances in the upcoming film.
It has been heavily rumored for weeks that Ben Hardy (EastEnders) had joined the cast of the soon to film sequel. There were contradicting reports whether or not he would be taking on the role of Warren Worthington. Well rest assured, it was confirmed today that Hardy will indeed be taking on the role of Angel. Check out the official concept art.
These images do clue us in to the direction that they may be going for with Apocalypse’s character design. In the comics, Apocalypse and Archangel are unmistakably purple. When Apocalypse possessed Angel and transformed him into one of his Horsemen, he altered his body and gave him a new identity, Archangel. Complete with razor sharp metallic wings which replaced his feathered, organic wings. It is clear that Apocalypse was making Worthington in his own image.
If we follow that same line of thinking, it is possible that the Apocalypse we see on screen next year could look similar to this concept art. The purple coloration is replaced with a cold and robotic steel, which may end up with the comic book hue from a distance anyways. There is a heavy alien influence in the comic book origin of Apocalypse as well. It’s unclear how they will explain his advanced technology in the film, but it is clear that he has endowed Archangel with much of the same tech. In the comics, the bladed wingtips can fire and return to him, similar to Shredder’s technology in last year’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Archangel’s story is both compelling and tragic. Hopefully Singer is able to balance the crowded cast and give the story the room it needs to breath. There is a lot more X-Men news coming over the next few weeks, so make sure to keep checking back.
X-Men: Apocalypse will open in theaters on May 27th, 2016.
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