Bryan Singer's next installment to the X-Men film franchise, X-Men: Apocalypse, aims to up the ante introducing (and re-introducing) many beloved characters to the big screen. Not only is its cast of characters a major selling point, but also the major disaster-movie level of destruction that the titular role is set to cause and how no character is safe from chaos. However Singer's previous installment, X-Men: Days of Future Past, could prove to be an issue selling this point, given that movie's conclusion involves Logan returning to a new timeline where previously deceased characters return to the present. Apocalypse is set to take place within this new timeline in 1983, chronologically before Logan's arrival to this new world.
Logically, it would have been safe to assume that the X-Men would ultimately prevail and relatively safe, given that characters appearing in Apocalypse are alive and well by Days of Future Past's ending. (Namely Prof. X, Beast, Jean Grey, Cyclops and Storm) However, Bryan Singer reveals that even characters appearing in the new present-day are not safe from Apocalypse in an onset report from IGN:
"[Those present-day characters are] all fair game, because anything can happen. When two things are happening simultaneously in quantum physics, it's what's called a superposition. When the observer finally observes the outcome, that's called the outcome of the superposition, which is what happened when Wolverine woke up and saw all the happiness [at the end of Days of Future Past]. So yes, that is the outcome, we hope. That is the outcome we aspire to, and that is the outcome we are moving towards, but it's not -- we saw in Days of Future Past how time, we saw another dark world. What says that can't happen again? What says the awakening of a being that has such power [Apocalypse] can't acquire the power to destabilize that? So, you know, anything is possible. So that's what we'd like to think happened. … But to me, it's fair game.”
It looks to be that even with the original cast's epilogue in Days of Future Past, no character is given immunity within this film. Singer seemingly implies that the timeline can still change, even the happy future that Wolverine woke up to, whether it be by another quantum physics anomaly, or the vast power that Apocalypse holds can create a superpositon that can alter timelines. All that can be sure is that the stakes can now live up to the film's tagline " Only the Strong Will Survive" . Who will survive the battle against Apocalypse? Share your thoughts below!
X-Men: Apocalypse hits theatres on May 27, 2016.