X-Men: Apocalypse Will Feature Original Trilogy And First Class Mutants

What do we know about Bryan Singer's X-Men: Apocalypse? The answer is not very much. Few details have leaked out about the project since it was announced last December, and while we know that the movie will be set in the '80s and center on Professor Xavier (James McAvoy), Magneto (Michael Fassbender) , Beast (Nicholas Hoult) and Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), we don't really know for sure which other mutants may be joining them. Sure, we might get to see new versions of Gambit and Nightcrawler, and there has been talk about expanding Quicksilver's part in the story, but could stars from the original X-Men trilogy once again reprise their roles? According to screenwriter/producer Simon Kinberg, the answer to that question appears to be an affirmative 'yes.'

The filmmaker has been making the press rounds as X-Men: Days of Future Past has been popping up in theaters around the world, and while speaking with The Daily Beast he confirmed that X-Men: Apocalypse will be pulling off a similar stunt as its predecessor and mixing different generations of mutants. While he didn't go into any details about exactly which characters could appear, Kinberg told the site, "[Apocalypse] will focus primarily on the First Class cast, but it will certainly have some of the original cast involved too."

So who exactly can we expect to appear in X-Men: Apocalypse? You can almost certainly bank on at least an appearance by Hugh Jackman's Wolverine, who has been in every single X-Men movie to date. But who else? A very likely inclusion could be Patrick Stewart, given that he has appeared in every one of the franchise's titles with the exception of X-Men: First Class. There's also a possibility that we could also get to see more of the older generation mutants who really didn't get that much screen time (if any at all) in X-Men: Days of Future Past.

Regardless of who actually ends up being in X-Men: Apocalypse, what also makes Kinberg's quote interesting is the fact that it may suggest that the film will once again include some form of time travel. The film's titular villain has been known to take advantage of tears in time and space, which could be what ends up once again bringing the X-Men trilogy and First Class casts together. Maybe they'll actually get to do a bit more crossover this time as well.

X-Men: Apocalypse is currently on the release schedule for May 27, 2016, and now that X-Men: Days of Future Past is such a big hit one must imagine that director Bryan Singer and the folks over at 20th Century Fox are making sure that their next movie ends up being a worthy follow up. Stay tuned as more details about the film are revealed.

Eric Eisenberg
Assistant Managing Editor

Eric Eisenberg is the Assistant Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. After graduating Boston University and earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism, he took a part-time job as a staff writer for CinemaBlend, and after six months was offered the opportunity to move to Los Angeles and take on a newly created West Coast Editor position. Over a decade later, he's continuing to advance his interests and expertise. In addition to conducting filmmaker interviews and contributing to the news and feature content of the site, Eric also oversees the Movie Reviews section, writes the the weekend box office report (published Sundays), and is the site's resident Stephen King expert. He has two King-related columns.