Bryan Singer Announces Follow Up To X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST…X-MEN APOCALYPSE

You have got to love Bryan Singer. He has really taken to Twitter and uses it to its fullest advantage. Like, say, announcing what his follow-up to X-Men: Days of Future Past will be:

#Xmen #Apocalypse 2016!

— Bryan Singer (@BryanSinger) December 5, 2013

The Wrap fleshes out this provocative Tweet by saying that Fox plans to give us X-Men: Apocalypse on May 26, 2016. It becomes the fourth comic book film announced for that year, following June’s The Amazing Spider-Man 3 and the two as-yet-unnamed Marvel films. I’m sure more will be coming.

Non-comic book fans will think that this title offers a spoiler to next year’s X-film. After all, the trailer clearly spells out that Wolverine is sent back in time to avoid the end of mutants as we know it. The title of the new film might make you think he failed.

Don’t get too hasty. Apocalypse is a popular villain from the comic books, and odds are that the mutants will be facing him in the next sequel.

Instead, focus your rumor mongering on whether or not the iconic “Age of Apocalypse” storyline from the comic books will be adapted to to big screen. That story involved Charles Xavier being killed by a time traveler before he could form the X-Men. Magneto takes over the responsibility for the team and soon faces a challenge from would-be world conqueror Apocalypse. Apocalypse wins and a dystopian future results where mutants are the ruling class and humans are hunted and persecuted.

Since Days of Future Past involves time travel, this storyline could fairly easily be shoehorned into the film continuity. We already know that characters from the storyline such as Bishop and Blink will be introduced in the next film, and Bryan Singer was really cagey back in May when asked if Apocalypse would appear in Days of Future Past. These all are signs that The Age of Apocalypse will be the next classic X-Men storyline adapted for the big screen.

Or maybe not. Who knows?

Developing.