2015 has been pretty light on comic book movies with nothing from DC and only Ant-Man and Avengers: Age of Ultron from Marvel (no, I’m not forgetting Fantastic Four, but I’m pre-trying to). 2016 will see the beginning of the explosion in the genre that will soon have us with 8-9 films a year between just the two big publishers. The DC Cinematic Universe will finally have more than one film, adding Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice and The Suicide Squad. Marvel begins MCU Phase 3 with Captain America: Civil War and Dr. Strange. FOX is also going to bring us X-Men: Apocalypse (X-Men VIII if we’re counting the Wolverine films) as well as solo films for Gambit and Deadpool.
These images come courtesy of Entertainment Weekly and 20th Century FOX, who had previously released them, but in much blurrier resolution. It gives us a look at Oscar Isaac’s Apocalypse (between this and Star Wars, he’s going to blow up) and Olivia Munn’s Psylocke. Magneto looks like he’s getting another tweak to his costume that drifts more toward the full-blown comic version we saw at the end of X-Men: First Class. We’re also moving far enough ahead in the timeline (though I’m not sure how far) that young Storm, Jean Grey, Cyclops, Nightcrawler and others are re-entering the picture. Apocalypse is probably the biggest Marvel villain we have yet to see onscreen in any form since the original X-Men film began the modern-day super hero film genre 15 years ago. I can’t wait to see what they’ll do with him. This will also be Jennifer Lawrence’s last film as Mystique and -if you believe his current mood- Hugh Jackman’s last team film as Wolverine. X-Men: Days of Future Past put their characters on an intertwined story path so I’m very interested to see that play out. I know footage from this was screened at Comic Con, so I think we can expect a teaser trailer before too much longer.
Those pictured include Storm (Alexandra Shipp), Apocalypse (Oscar Issac), Psylocke (Olivia Munn), Magneto (Michael Fassbender), Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), Quicksilver (Evan Peters), Professor X (James McAvoy), Havok (Lucas Till), Beast (Nicholas Hoult), Moira MacTaggert (Rose Byrne), Cyclops (Tye Sheridan), Jubilee (Lana Condor), Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee), and Jean Grey (Sophie Turner). X-Men: Apocalypse releases May 27, 2016.