Five things you need to know about the ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ trailer

At this point you’ve probably seen the new X-Men: Apocalypse trailer. The follow-up to X-Men: Days Of Future Past takes us ten years into the future (1983, in this case) and shows us the younger Professor X and the gang battle ancient baddie Apocalpyse. Director Bryan Singer share some juicy bits of information about the movie with Empire and we take out some key information from the interview.

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Apocalypse’s God complex
“I’ve been called many things over many lifetimes,” says Apocalypse. “Ra. Krishna. Yahweh.” It shows how old he is and how much of a God complex he has. Singer questions, “Why would someone create and rule over a race simply to be worshipped?” This seems to be what Apocalypse is after. He isn’t particularly amused to wake up in time where people really don’t give a damn about him. “It bears no respect or devotion to him—that’s the big giant ego of the old God,” adds Singer. “All of it lacks symmetry, order and devotion to him. It needs to be culled. It needs to be wiped away and rebuilt again.”

Magneto’s vulnerability and the Four Horsemen
CIA’s Moira MacTaggert makes a comeback in this film and in one of the scenes in the trailer she outlines her theory that Apocalypse recruits four mutants to act as his bodyguards, much like the Apocalypse in the Bible (or as she posits maybe the Bible gets it from him?). The trailer shows us a quick glimpse of the four mutants: Storm (Alexandra Shipp), Psylocke (Olivia Munn), Angel/Archangel (Ben Hardy), and yes, Magneto or Erik Lensherr (Michael Fassbender).

Erik tried to stay in the shadows after 1973 but it seems Apocalypse has other plans for him. “I am here now,” he says. “I am here for you.” According to Singer, “He’s found Erik at the most vulnerable place in his life. He’s searching for God. Remember, he was a young Jew in a concentration camp when he first lost his family and now here comes this man who was, is, or claims to be God. The power of persuasion is Apocalypse’s greatest power.” But can Erik follow his lead for long?

Jubilee’s minor role
You might have seen Lana Condor’s Jubilee in the trailer. Unfortunately, she doesn’t have that much big of a part in the movie just yet. “I very specifically put Jubilee in,” says Singer. “There was one cut that did not have her in it—her role is not particularly large, but she is a part of the growing new universe.”

Quicksilver is still on the run
Remember that Pentagon kitchen scene in Days Of Future Past? It seems we will be getting that in a bigger way in Apocalypse. “There’s one sequence that took one and a half months to shoot for three minutes of film,” says Singer. “It involves the most complex camera moves, very sophisticated explosive algorithms, 3D Phantom cameras travelling at 50mph while shooting at 3,100 frames per second. Evan worked more days on this movie than any other actor because of this one sequence.” And it just might come with a cool ’80s pop song, if Singer has his way.

Professor X and beginnings/ends
In this film, we finally get to see Professor Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) lose his hair and having to deal with a creature far too powerful for him. He even says “I’ve never felt power like this” at one point in the trailer. You see him trembling as some unseen force seems to have taken a hold of Cerebro (we assume it’s Apocalypse) and turns his eyes black.

“I wanted to remind the audience that this isn’t just the climax of three movies,” explains Singer. “It’s the climax of six movies, beginning with X-Men 1.” And yes, they got the original chair from the first film. They bought it from a collector it seems.

At the end of the trailer, you see Professor X looking past the camera. And we’ll only get to find out what he sees (perhaps a look past the fourth wall?) when we catch the film next year. “He’s not looking at the camera,” clarifies Singer. “He’s looking at something else. And that’s in the film. You’ll see it.”

Extra note
Oh, and did you notice? This seems to be the first X-Men film without Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine in (at least in the trailer). Perhaps the focus is more on the younger characters led by the likes of Sophie Turner as Jean Grey, Nicholas Hoult’s Beast, Jennifer Lawrence’s Raven/Mystique, to name a few. It doesn’t matter though, the trailer has us more pumped than ever for what this new X-Men film has to offer.

Cover photo courtesy of 20th Century Fox