X-Men: Apocalypse screenwriter Simon Kinberg has been talking quite a bit about the next installment of the mutant superhero franchise while promoting the DVD and Blu-ray release of X-Men: Days Of Future Past, and he had some interesting things to say in one of his latest question-and-answer sessions.
While addressing questions from fans via Yahoo Movies, Kinberg (who also serves as a producer on Apocalypse) indicated that the upcoming film will conclude a three-part story that kicked off in 2011 with the franchise-rebooting X-Men: First Class.
“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,” he explained. “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.”
Despite the trilogy-concluding nature of Apocalypse, Kinberg hinted at more films in the future for the X-Men characters — including a few popular characters that didn’t make it into any of the movies so far.
“[Psylocke] has a cool power. I know Bryan [Singer] thinks she’s a neat character so there’s certainly a chance she’ll be in an X-Men movie some day,” said Kinberg in response to a fan question about popular mutants that have yet to make their proper (i.e., not throwaway cameo) big-screen debuts. “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.”
Kinberg also clarified the current timeline for the X-Men cinematic universe. Previously, the continuity had begun with X-Men: First Class and ran through the past events of X-Men: Days Of Future Past, then X-Men Origins: Wolverine, X-Men, X2: X-Men United, X-Men: The Last Stand, The Wolverine, and the future storyline of X-Men: Days of Future Past.
According to Kinberg, the timeline beyond the past events portrayed in Days Of Future Past is a blank slate, thanks to the history-rewriting plot of that film.
“We changed the timeline for everything that came after DOFP,” he explained. “So Jean [Grey] was not killed in Last Stand, nor was Scott, and a whole lot of other things rippled.”
You can watch the full Q&A session with Kinberg below:
