Simon Kinberg, Dan Harris and Michael Dougherty are currently working on the script for X-MEN: APOCALYPSE, and as we already know, the film will be set in the 1980s. In a recent interview with Collider, Kinberg said he and director Bryan Singer are having some fun with the time period.
We’re having a lot of fun with the idea of the 80s. It’s a decade that Bryan and I both grew up in and so the music, the style, the aesthetic, the legacy of 80s movies is something we’re really having fun with.
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Kinberg was also asked about the budget for X-MEN: APOCALYPSE, and while he isn’t sure what it’s going to be, it doesn’t sound like he’s too worried about it either.
There are some very big set pieces. I don’t know what the budget’s gonna be because we’re still a ways away from budgeting the film, but I can say that Fox has a lot of creative confidence in the team that made Days of Future Past—myself, Bryan, Lauren Shuler Donner, Hutch Parker. All of those people are coming back so in terms of a sandbox they’re definitely giving us a lot of room to play creatively and take chances the way that we took some chances on Days of Future Past, and do some radical things just as I think we did some radical things in Days of Future Past.
Simon Kinberg goes on to again say X-MEN: APOCALYPSE will complete the First Class trilogy, and also says the film will not only further explore Erik and Charles’ relationship, but Beast and Mystique’s as well.
I will say that [X-Men: Apocalypse] is definitely the close of a trilogy for those First Class characters, which isn’t to say we won’t see them in future movies, hopefully we will, but it’s a completion of an arc for them. I think that the friendship between Erik and Charles, which has always been so integral to the franchise, is something we’re continuing to explore and hopefully deepen with Apocalypse. And the relationship between Beast and Mystique is a really interesting one that we didn’t have a lot of time to explore in Days of Future Past, so we’ll have an opportunity to do more of that in Apocalypse.
I agree Mystique and Beast’s relationship kind of got the shaft in X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST, but there was quite a lot going on in the film. Speaking of a few of those characters, Kinberg says X-MEN: APOCALYPSE will also deal with how Erik and Charles’ different philosophies helped shape Mystique as a person.
Part of what’s really interesting about Mystique’s character is that she is, in some ways, the child of both Erik and Charles. She grew up with Charles and then she sort of became a woman with Erik, so her being the cross-pollination, if you will, of those two philosophies and those two men is something we can explore in the movie too.
I loved X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST, and can’t wait to find out more about the plans for X-MEN: APOCALYPSE. My biggest question though is who is going to play Apocalypse? With studios battling each other for actors to star in their comic book movies, it’ll be very interesting to see who Bryan Singer and company land for the part.
X-MEN: APOCALYPSE will start filming in April of next year, and it’ll be in theaters on May 27, 2016.