After months of speculation, a leaked comic-con trailer and onset photos, the highly anticipated trailer for X-Men: Apocalypse dropped today providing fans with their first good look at a new roster of X-Men and the film’s protagonist.
To start things off, Jean Grey, this time portrayed by Game of Thrones’ (Sophie Turner), awakes from a dream and proclaims to Professor Xavier (James McAvoy) that she has “seen the end of the world”. The X-Men have always had post-apocalyptic dystopias as a part of their lore and having Apocalypse as the big bad in this film may indeed validate Jean’s visions of death and destruction.
Apocalypse (Oscar Issac), who audiences got a glimpse of during the post credits scene at the end of X-Men: Days of Future Past, is described as the first mutant and a history lesson provided by Moira MacTaggart (Rose Byrne) on Apocalypse’s history and apparent m.o. links him to biblical times. Most of what is revealed about Apocalypse comes from his own mouth. In a voiceover, he states that he has been known by many names over many lifetimes: Ra, Krishna, Yahweh. He continues, saying that mutants are all his children and that they are lost because they’ve been following blind leaders.
Here’s looking at you Charles Xavier!
X-Men: Apocalypse is the 6th film in the franchise and X-Men (2000) has the curious distinction of having more prequels than sequels. It also marks the return of Bryan Singer to the director’s chair after helming the franchise’s first two films X-Men and X2 (2003).
Unlike other superhero films, the events in the X-Men cinematic universe have always been tied to specific time periods. X-Men: First Class occurred in the 60’s and X-Men: Days of Future Past had some of its narrative set in the 70’s. This time around it’s the 80’s and the film’s roster of characters reflects not only the hallmarks of the decade but also the X-Men roster from the comics of that era.
Some of the trailer’s 80’s treats for long time fans of the franchise include Storm’s (Alexandra Shipp) badass mohawk, Angel’s Archangel wings projecting their metal quills and Jubilee’s (Lana Condor) signature yellow coat and massive yellow hoop earrings. In another nod to the decade, Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), sports a classic 80’s perm and is firmly on Team Xavier this time around. Joining Mystique and Xavier are Quicksilver (Evan Peters), Nightcrawler (Kodi Smith-McPhee), Havok (Lucas Till), Cyclops (Tye Sheridan) and Beast (Nicholas Hoult). It’s all hands on deck for in a bid to stop Apocalypse and his four Horsemen: Magneto (Michael Fassbender), Angel/Archangel (Ben Hardy), Psylocke (Olivia Munn) and Storm.
X-Men: Apocalypse hits theaters May 27, 2016
