X-Men: Apocalypse Finally Happening

by Chris Vegvary

Marvel Studios has its hands full with properties like Iron Man, Hulk, and the Avengers, there are still movies based on Marvel comics owned by other studios. Fox owns the film rights to franchises like Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, and the X-Men. While Fox doesn’t have the greatest track record when it comes to their Marvel film properties, they’re aiming to do something about it and are trying to create a world similar to Marvel’s Cinematic Universe, in which all their franchises are tied together.

When X-Men: Days of Future Past was announced as both a sequel to X-Men: First Class as well as X-Men: The Last Stand, I knew things were starting to go right at Fox. First Class introduced us to the “first” generation of Charles Xavier’s mutant team (I’m basing this only on the movie, not the comics) and showed the creation of his greatest foe, Magneto. Days of Future Past will feature not only the X-Men of the past, but the X-Men of the future coming together to stop the creation of the Sentinels, giant mutant-hunting robots that eventually end up wiping out the mutant race.

Not too long after we learned of Fox’s plans for Days of Future Past, they went and announced that there would soon be an X-Force film in the works. X-Force is sort of like the X-Men’s black ops team, doing the dirty work behind the scenes so that mutants like Charles Xavier can stay on the front lines fighting the good fight in public. This team could feature mutants like Cable, Deadpool, Domino, and even Wolverine. Hearing about that made me think that Fox was maybe just announcing things just so that they could get the public riled up, but now I’m more hopeful than ever.

Earlier in the week, it was announced that the next film in the X-Men franchise following Days of Future Past would be called X-Men: Apocalypse. For those of you who don’t know, Apocalypse is an ancient being that claims to be the first mutant. Along with Mr. Sinister, Apocalypse performs experiments on mutants, transforming them into beings that bend only to his will. Apocalypse is responsible for the techno-organic virus running through Cable’s body, having injected him with it as a baby.

Does this mean that we’ll see characters like Cable and Mr. Sinister in X-Men: Apocalypse? If so, then they need to find a way to revive Cyclops and Jean Grey, because Cable is their son. We already know that other time-traveling mutants, like Bishop, will be featured in Days of Future Past, so it stands to reason that if Apocalypse is going to be featured, his greatest enemy (Cable) should be featured as well. I can’t wait for the next few years to come around and show us all the good movies that are coming out. Properties owned by Fox, such as the Spider-Man and X-Men franchises, are said to be crossing over in a cinematic universe similar to Marvel's. That would be something.