We've Seen The First Footage From X-Men: Apocalypse And It Is Incredible
MTV among lucky fans given first peek at next instalment in franchise...
Fans at San Diego Comic-Con — including MTV News — have been treated to a look at the upcoming X-Men: Apocalypse - and we gotta say, we don't hate this latest mutation at all.
The panel began with a sizzle reel that included the adorable original 1999 audition of Hugh Jackman for Wolverine.
"You think I asked for this, eh?"
Jackman was the first one out to the panel, saying: "Man, have I aged... I have three words for you: Old Man Logan. Take from that what you will."
He called Wolverine the greatest superhero ever made, admitting: "I may be biased."
And he thanked fans for being "the most loyal, passionate, honest, sometimes brutally honest" people in the world.
"I know they killed off Wolverine in the comic books recently, but in the movies, hey, he's not dead yet," he said of his character.
"This next time is going to be my last time putting on the claws. One. Last. Time.
"This has been the greatest thing that ever happened to me."
Director Bryan Singer then joined him on stage for a hug, before they summoned co-stars Evan Peters, Lucas Till, Lana Condor, Kody Smit-McPhee, Tye Sheridan, Sophie Turner, Nicholas Hoult, James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, Oscar Isaac, Olivia Munn, Ben Hardy, Alexandra Shipp and writer-producer Simon Kinberg.
Some of my favorite mutants earlier today. #XMen #SingerSDCC pic.twitter.com/CrcLhzDLRq
— X-Men Movies (@XMenMovies) July 12, 2015
But you want to know about that footage we mentioned don't you?
Singer explained that the movie is set in 1983 and added: "Film school disclaimer, this is sort of cut in trailer format but it represents only about five weeks of shooting, no finished visual effects or anything like that.
"But what it does represent are the tastes and tone of the movie we're making."
And that tone is awesome.
We got our first look at Oscar Isaac's Apocalypse, a slick-looking blue man with black markings on his face, while an ominous voiceover played.
"I've been called many things over many times of my life," he says. "I was there to spark and fan the flame of man's awakening. To spin the wheel of civilization."
Moira MacTaggert (Rose Byrne) introduces him as perhaps "the world’s first mutant".
"You are all my children and you are lost, because you follow blind leaders," Apocalypse intones. "Everything they've built will fall and from the ashes of their world we'll build a better one."
McAvoy, as Professor X, wears a helmet and cries in amazement.
"What do you see?" he's asked.
"Oh god," is all he can answer. And we feel the same.
Later in the footage, his eyes turn pure black: "I've never felt power like this before."
And, of course, the last shot in the trailer introduces Professor X as we know him: turning slowly to the camera in his wheelchair, bald and serious.
If this is what Singer can do after five weeks, we can't wait to see the finished product next summer.
It was, as Hoult later said in the panel: "Cool as s**t."