‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ Last In Trilogy, New Characters Teased

Did you know that X-Men: First Class­ was the start of a new X-Men trilogy? That’s the case according to X-Men: Apocalypse writer and producer Simon Kinberg, who also talked about some of the characters that didn’t make it into Days of Future Past.

In an interview with Yahoo Movies, Kinberg discussed the chronological order of the current set of X-Men­ movies, plus explaining why Rogue was cut from Days of Future Past. She’ll return as part of an extended cut of the film to be released next year.

Warning: Some of the below may be considered spoilers if you haven’t seen X-Men: Days of Future Past. If you are worried about that, please come back later. I’m willing to wait!

The more interesting news is how X-Men: Apocalypse fits into the grand scheme of things. Days of Future Past essentially reset Fox’s X-Men movie universe and wiped away the sins of X-Men: Last Stand and the two stand-alone Wolverine movies. That means a fresh slate to build off the period pieces that began with First Class.

“We changed the timeline for everything that came after ‘DOFP’ – so ‘X-Men 1’, 2 and 3, even ‘The Wolverine.’ So Jean [Grey] was not killed in ‘Last Stand,’ nor was Scott, and a whole lot of other things rippled.”

That ripple means a recasting of Storm, Cyclops, and Jean Grey. It also includes how Wolverine got his claws, but don’t expect for that to be revisited anytime soon. Instead, the focus for X-Men: Apocalypse will be on Professor X and Magneto, plus Beast and Mystique.

“The thrust of ‘Apocalypse’ is really to complete the trilogy we began with ‘First Class’ – to complete the stories of young Raven, young Hank, younger Charles and Erik. And complete this trilogy of four people who began the films sort of disparate and in different worlds… [and who] we’ve followed through the span of decades. So that’ll be the thrust. There will be familiar characters and new characters that we haven’t seen… ever… but it’ll be the completion of what we began in ‘First Class’.”

According to Kinberg, some of those new characters could include Psylocke and Scarlet Witch. The door is left open for the time-traveling mutant with the convoluted past that’s in the future, Cable.

Scarlet Witch is also making an appearance in Avengers: Age of Ultron, thanks to a deal struck between Marvel and Fox. She is both a mutant and an Avenger, and had a brief appearance in Days of Future Past, so that seems open but not likely.

Kinberg revealed that Psylocke was almost in Days of Future, however. They had even gone through casting the role before it was cut because of the number of other mutants.

“She has a cool power. I know Bryan thinks she’s a neat character so there’s certainly a chance she’ll be in an ‘X-Men’ movie someday. Hopefully there’ll be a lot of ‘X-Men’ movies and there’s lot of mutants we’re yet to fully explore onscreen, even if they’ve had cameos before. Now we’re making more films there’s a chance to dig deeper.”

Update: As pointed out in the comments below, Psylocke technically appeared in X-Men: The Last Stand. The character didn’t resemble the comic book version either in origin or powers and I don’t believe her name was ever actually spoken. It was almost like director Brett Ratner just slapped a name on an extra for the credits (via IMDB). I don’t know. Does that count?

[Images via X-Men: Days of Future Past, X-Men: First Class]