Spoiler Alert!
After the credits finish rolling for 20th Century Fox’s “X-Men: Days of Future Past,” there is a scene which features a lone figure (actor Brendan Pedder) atop a hill in the desert with his arms outstretched. He is using his powers to manipulate the quarried blocks of stone into the great pyramids of Egypt. A crowd of worshippers repeatedly chants his name “En Sabah Nur.” That figure is Marvel’s first mutant known as Apocalypse. On an adjacent hill sit The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. They are the elite minions, who play a key role in Apocalypse’s plans.
“X-Men: Days of Future Past” Writer-producer Simon Kinberg was interviewed recently about the after credits scene and the reason to involve a new villain into the X-Men Universe.
What was your approach to that, and reasoning behind it?
At some point in making the movie we talked about what the potential next film would be, and we all really gravitated towards Apocalypse. We really wanted it to be more for the core fans than for the broad audience; to be something that was a genuine tease, and almost mysterious to mainstream audiences who don’t know the comics well, so they’re thinking, “What’s that?”
In the sequel, “X-Men: Apocalypse,” will the younger or older cast be featured as the primary characters?
It will focus primarily on the First Class cast, but it will certainly have some of the original cast involved, too.
Will Bryan Singer be back in the director’s chair for Apocalypse?
That is the plan.
As Apocalypse is teased at the end of the movie, is there a lot of pressure filming one of these introductory, post-credit stingers?
The hope of Days of Future Past is that people like it and, even though we changed a ton from the original comic, we stayed true to the essence of it. But the hope is also to broaden the audience, people who aren’t necessarily hardcore X-Men fans, or maybe haven’t even seen an X-Men movie, go see this movie. Hopefully the event of the cast draws people in. So the pressure on Apocalypse is to do something similar. Broaden the audience and stay true to the core ideals of the comics and fans. I don’t approach this stuff as a business, I approach it as a writer and an artist, so how do we do something different? First Class was so different in tone and character. Days of Future is a completely different movie. Science fiction and ambitious. I want Apocalypse to feel ambitious.
How does that character complicate the world for you? We know he builds pyramids with his mind. It’s more of an opportunity. For most of these X-Men movies, Magneto is the villain. Or Stryker. So the idea of having a new villain and super powerful villain. It’s extinction stakes, which these movies haven’t visualized before. The best superhero movies have subgenres. Days of Future Past is time travel sci-fi. Apocalypse is a disaster movie mashed up with superhero movies.
What do you think of Apocalypse being the “Big Bad” villain in the next X-Men film?
Sources: The Daily Beast, Vulture, wikipedia