“X-Men: Apocalypse”: 60 things you didn’t know about the movie!

1. X-Men: Apocalypse is an upcoming American superhero film based on the X-Men characters that appear in Marvel Comics.

2. It is intended to be the sequel to 2014’s X-Men: Days of Future Past and the ninth installment in the X-Men film series.

3. Directed by Bryan Singer, with a screenplay by Simon Kinberg from a story conceived by Singer, Kinberg, Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris, the film features an ensemble cast starring James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Oscar Isaac, Nicholas Hoult, Rose Byrne, Tye Sheridan, Sophie Turner, Olivia Munn and Lucas Till. In X-Men: Apocalypse, ancient mutant Apocalypse awakens and plans to take over the world.

4. The film was announced by Singer in December 2013 with Kinberg, Dougherty, and Harris attached to develop the story.

5. Casting began in October 2014 while principal photography commenced in April 2015 in Montreal, Canada, and ended in August of the same year.

6. X-Men: Apocalypse is scheduled for release on May 27, 2016, in North America in 3D and 2D.

7. Including his cameo in X-Men: First Class (2011), this will be Hugh Jackman’s eighth portrayal of Wolverine/Logan, raising his own record for the most times a comic book character has been played by the same actor in theatrical films. He will also be the only actor to appear in the entire X-Men film franchise.

8. The plot: Since ancient times the first and most powerful mutant, Apocalypse—immortal and invincible—has been worshipped as a god. But when Apocalypse awakens from hibernation and decides to end humanity, Raven andCharles Xavier lead a team of young X-Men to face Apocalypse and defeat him.

9. In December 2013, Bryan Singer announced X-Men: Apocalypse on the social networking service Twitter for a May 27, 2016 release.

10. In the same month, Simon Kinberg, Dan Harris and Michael Dougherty were revealed by Singer to be attached to work on the story of the film.

11. According to Singer, the film will focus on the origin of the mutants and will feature the younger versions of Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Storm.

12. Singer also said that he was considering Gambit and a younger version of Nightcrawler to appear.

13. According to Kinberg, it will take place in 1983 and will complete a trilogy that began with 2011’s X-Men: First Class.

14. In September 2014, 20th Century Fox officially announced that Singer would direct the film. Singer has called this film “kind of a conclusion of six X-Men films, yet a potential rebirth of younger, newer characters” and the “true birth of the X-Men”.

15. Simon Kinberg explains that, thanks to the time-travelling consequences of X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), history has been altered so that some mutants have turned out differently than in the previous films. This has enabled new versions of old characters to potentially exist and appear in these films (Cyclops, Jean Grey, Storm, Angel, Nightcrawler).

16. Bryan Singer has confirmed the film will take place in 1983 and will feature other familiar characters in their youth.

17. According to Simon Kinberg, this will be the final film in the First Class story arc, which also consisted of X-Men: First Class (2011) and X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014). Kinberg calls this film the culmination of Xavier and Lensherr’s relationship, “First Class was about Erik becoming empowered, the origin story of a man’s power. Days of Future Past was about Charles becoming empowered, a guy who is a mess but masterminds the end of a massive event. This film has them both at their peak and finally going at each other!”

18. Tom Hardy and Idris Elba were considered for the role of Apocalypse.

19. According to Simon Kinberg, Apocalypse is the darkest villain in the series: “He doesn’t distinguish between mutants and humans like the other villains do, only between the weak and the strong. To him it’s all just one giant screwed-up world that worships false idols and needs to be saved from itself. He is the God of the Old Testament: if there isn’t the order and worship then I’ll open up the Earth and swallow you whole!”

20. Bryan Singer chose Apocalypse as the antagonist to examine the origins of mutants on Earth: “It deals with ancient mutantism, the origins of the mutant state; or the origin of gods and religion. There’s a mixture of ancient religion and cultism in the character of Apocalypse.”

21. Although not in the movie, Charles Xavier actor Patrick Stewart jokingly informed Bryan Singer that he would be willing to play Mystique should Jennifer Lawrence “start playing up.” He said, “I am so ready to be naked, painted blue, and the world is ready for it too.”

22. For the role of Charles Xavier, James McAvoy shaved his head. It was something he had wanted to do in the previous X-Men films.

23. According to Simon Kinberg, this will contain more mass destruction than any of the previous X-Films. Kinberg states, “We’ve spent the most time talking about creating a character that’s the most powerful mutant villain that we’ve seen in the X-Men movies so far, more powerful than Magneto or the Phoenix! The kind of scope and scale we’re talking about is like a disaster movie featuring an extinction-level event. We’re talking Michael Bay/Roland Emmerich-style moviemaking, which you’ve never seen in an X-Men movie, or any superhero movie.”

24. The film was to be called “Age of Apocalypse,” after the comic of the same name. But this was changed to simply “Apocalypse” for a more ominous title, as well as to avoid comparison with Avengers: Age of Ultron and Transformers: Age of Extinction.

25. Hugh Jackman announced that X-Men: Apocalypse and Untitled Wolverine Sequel (2017) will be his last portrayal as Wolverine. He will be retiring from the role after playing the character since 2000.

26. It is rumored that the mutant Dazzler will make an appearance in the movie, according to writer Simon Kinberg.

27. X-Men Apocalypse will be the second X-Men movie to feature the Danger Room, after X-Men: The Last Stand.

28. This is the second film appearance for Nightcrawler.

29. Apocalypse is to make his live-action debut in 2016, the 30th anniversary of his debut in the X-Men comics (May 1986).

30. In the comic books, Scott Summers/Cyclops is the older brother of Alex Summers/Havok. In this film, the situation is reversed, with Alex (Lucas Till) being the older brother of Scott (Tye Sheridan). This is probably a reference to the Ultimate X-Men comics, where Havok is sometimes the older brother of Cyclops, and Cyclops is sometimes the older brother of Havok.

31. The only mutants to appear in all three prequel X-Men movies are: Havoc, Mystique, Professor X, Magneto, Wolverine, and Beast.

32. Elle Fanning, Chloë Grace Moretz, Hailee Steinfeld, Saoirse Ronan, Daisy Ridley, Lily Collins and Margot Robbie were considered for the role of Jean Grey, before Sophie Turner was cast.

33. Bryan Singer has called this film “kind of a conclusion of six X-Men films, yet a potential rebirth of younger, newer characters” and the “true birth of the X-Men.”

34. This will be the first time that the Summers brothers, Scott Summers (Cyclops) and Alex Summers (Havoc), appear together in a live-action movie. In the comics, there was another brother, Gabriel Summers (Vulcan), but he has not appeared in any shows/movies so far and the filmmakers decided two brothers in a film was enough.

35. Amber Stevens West and Zendaya were considered for the role of Storm before Alexandra Shipp was cast.

36. Quicksilver’s X-Mansion run lasts three minutes, but took three and a half months to film; Evan Peters spent more time on set than any other actor on the film. The sequence was shot with 3-D Phantom cameras traveling at 50mph, while shooting at 3,100 frames per second.

37. This will be Jubilation Lee/Jubilee’s first major appearance, after appearing in Generation X (1996) and having minor roles in the first three X-Men films.

38. Chloë Grace Moretz was set to star as Jean Grey but declined the role, due to scheduling conflicts.

39. Alexandra Shipp shaved her head to sport a Mohawk as Storm.

40. Timothée Chalamet, Ben Hardy, Charlie Rowe, Taron Egerton, Logan Lerman, Josh Hutcherson, Dylan O’Brien, Jesse Plemons and Jamie Blackley were considered for the role of Cyclops/Scott Summers, before Tye Sheridan was cast. Ben Hardy would later be cast in the role of Angel.

41. Xavier’s wheelchair in the teaser trailer is the same one Patrick Stewart used in X-Men (2000).

42. In the original trilogy, Angel, Psylocke and Jubilee are portrayed as younger than Cyclops, Jean, Storm, and Nightcrawler. However, Jubilee is being portrayed as the same age as the four, while Psylocke and Angel are now older.

43. To prepare for her role as Jean Grey, Sophie Turner studied Famke Janssen’s performance as Grey in the previous X-Men films.

44. This will be “X-Men” creator Stan Lee’s third cameo in an X-Men film.

45. Josh Helman is the first actor in the X-Men franchise to play William Stryker more than once.

46. Sophie Turner is best known for her role on Game of Thrones (2011), where she co-stars with Peter Dinklage, who appeared in X-Men:

47. Sasha Pieterse turned down the role of Jean Grey.

48. Taron Egerton turned down the role of Cyclops.

49. Sophie Turner is best known for her role on Game of Thrones (2011), where she co-stars with Peter Dinklage, who appeared in “X-Men: Days of Future Past”.

50. Bryan Singer describes Apocalypse as a mutant acting as a god, saying, “Apocalypse’s from an ancient time and doesn’t understand he’s a mutant. He thinks of himself as more of a god. He’s a hard man to break, it’s why he thinks he’s God. And the big giant ego of the god is that the world lacks order and respect/devotion to him. It needs to be culled, it needs to be wiped away and rebuilt.”

51. Sophie Turner shares similarities with her predecessor Famke Janssen:

• Neither are natural redheads; Turner is blonde and Janssen is brunette
• Both are European; Turner is British and Jansen is Dutch
• Both are an inch taller than their co-stars playing Cyclops; Tye Sheriden is 5’8″ while Turner is 5’9,” and James Marsden is 5’10 while Janssen is 5’11”
• Both are older than their co-stars playing Cyclops; Turner is 9 months older than Tye Sheriden and Janssen is 9 years older than James Marsden

52. Michael Fassbender (Magneto) and Kodi Smit-McPhee (Nightcrawler) are enemies in this film. Fassbender and Smit-McPhee had previously worked together on Slow West(2015), where they played allies.

53. Sophie Turner is the second Game of Thrones (2011) cast member to join the X-Men franchise, with Peter Dinklage being the first.

54. This is Ben Hardy’s feature film debut; he previously starred in the British soap opera EastEnders (1985) for two years, before recently leaving the role.

55. This movie is released 10 years to the day that X-Men: The Last Stand came out hence it comes out on its 10th anniversary.

56. In the comics, Elizabeth Braddock/Psylocke is British and Warren Worthington/Angel is American. They are being played by actors of the opposite nationality; Olivia Munn is American and Ben Hardy is British.

57. Tuesday Knight launched a failed campaign via social media, in an attempt to be cast as the mutant Dazzler.

58. Bryan Singer compared the film to Game of Thrones (2011), saying, “It’s a younger generation finding their powers and finding out who they are and their place in the world. They don’t even know if that’s the right goal. Everyone’s miserable, but they want to get that power.”

59. Actors Josh Helman (William Stryker) and Nicholas Hoult (Hank McCoy/Beast) are enemies in this film. Helman and Hoult had previously worked together on Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) as allies.

60. Olivia Munn practiced swordfighting in preparation for her role.