X-Men: Apocalypse isn’t getting the best reviews up to this point, but don’t expect that to stop Bryan Singer and company from taking the X-Men into the future with a fresh start. We know what villain we might be seeing in the near future and how the series might bring back the team’s greatest storyline for a second shot at the big screen, but now we also know a general timeline for the films.
With X-Men: Apocalypse landing in the 80s, Singer is aiming for the fourth installment to head into the 90s. But he’s not stopping there according to an interview over at Fandango:
“That was something Simon [Kinberg] and I discussed a long time ago, all the way back to when I first pitched the studio on First Class — that they do each movie in 10-year increments,” Singer explains when asked about the ‘90s setting. “It’s a nice way for the audience to kind of keep track of the timeline, and it’s fun to play in these different eras. So that’s a good starting point.”
“But we’ve also introduced the tenants of time travel, which already exists in the comic book. Also I imagine – and this is the first time I’ve actually answered the question this way – but another thing that’s been introduced in the comics is a big alien, interstellar tenant within the X-Men universe that hasn’t been explored. And to me, that might be kind of fun because I’m a huge Star Wars and Star Trek fan, and exploring the X-Men universe and being able to utilize that would be exciting, visually.”
Space is a big place, even without the characters from the Marvel Universe helping to fill it out. It might even be where that “new threat” set to be teased in the closing credits will come from. But what exactly is there to expect if the X-Men head out into space for some reason? Let’s take a look:
The most obvious is the Phoenix saga, with Jean Grey becoming a host for the Phoenix force and then eventually unleashing its darker side. This would definitely be enough to launch the team into space. Phoenix devours an entire star and kills an alien race, garnering the attention of the next crew on this tiny list.
The Shi’ar Empire is an odd, powerful collection of aliens that are led by a crew of cold-blooded bird people. Lilandra is the empress of the group, but she’s always dealing with evil schemes from her sister Deathbirh and brother D’Ken. It’s an odd set of folks, but they’re important to the X-Men and Phoenix stories. Lilandra in particular ends up being a love interest to Charles Xavier, meaning bird sex might be in store for our psychic friend. Bird sex.
And with the Shi’ar, you get the Shi’ar Imperial Guard. Led by the Superman-like Gladiator, it’s basically a team of space superheroes that could stand in for mostly anybody in the DC and Marvel universes. So if you wanted to have your DC/Marvel mega crossover, you could pretend you’re getting it from Fox. But then you’d have to deal with Mystique being the leader of the team and defeating “Superman” with her super feet moves.
With the Imperial Guard, the Starjammers are also closely connected to the Shi’ar, but on an opposing plotline. Instead of being their team of champions, the Starjammers are space pirates that escaped slavery within the Shi’ar empire. Corsair is the leader of the group, also known as Christopher Summers — father of Cyclops and Havok. It’s a weird situation with lots of comic book drama layered over it, but the main takeaway here is that Fox will have their own Guardians of the Galaxy to play around with in the X-Men universe. They won’t have Chris Pratt, though.
And finally, we have The Brood. The Marvel answer to the Xenomorphs, except they have the ability to think at times and transform their hosts into Brood warriors. In my opinion, The Brood is a long shot for any appearance in an X-Men film. There could be some cameo or some tweaking for what the Brood actually is within the universe, but I wouldn’t think they’d be some sort of main adversary in the films. It might work in a comic, but it’d be hard to believe that a team of superheroes would have trouble defeating a bunch of alien bugs.
If anything, you get the drift for the possibilities coming in a space setting for the X-Men. It’d definitely be a way to expand out from just telling a simple “save the universe” story, while also giving fans a taste of what they want with those crossovers. Will it happen like that? Probably not. Something will ruin it all along the way. Likely Taylor Swift’s Dazzler.
(Via Fandango / Comics Alliance)
