Bryan Singer

The X-Men movie franchise remains somewhat in flux after the mixed reception of Bryan Singer’s Apocalypse, but it looks the the director will have his share of new mutants in the meantime. FOX confirms that Singer will officially direct the new X-Men universe TV series pilot, in addition to producing.

The X-Men are slowly taking over. On TV, we’re getting FX’s Legion, on the big screen, we’re getting Logan, a Deadpool sequel, and New Mutants. Even after the decidedly dismal X-Men: Apocalypse, the film series that makes up the spine of the X-Men franchise is still planning on a further installment, and now we might know the title.

It may be difficult to believe in light of the 2016 election results, but there is other news still happening out there — even in the world of film, which offers a welcome distraction for many right now. And 20th Century Fox is serving up some pretty major news today, with a report that sheds light on the studio’s plans for the future of their expanding X-Men franchise, including Deadpool 3, X-Force and Gambit.

X-Men: Apocalypse didn’t have a very great summer. The movie itself was not great, and its ad campaign, featuring huge billboards of Oscar Isaac’s Apocalypse choking Jennifer Lawrence, was roundly criticized for showing excessive violence against women.

The Wolverine 3 (or 2, if we’re ignoring X-Men: Origins, and we should) hits theaters in about six months, which means we should be seeing a teaser trailer…well, any day now, really. Rest assured, director James Mangold is working hard to deliver the first footage from the upcoming sequel, but until then, Bryan Singer has confirmed a major X-Men villain for Hugh Jackman’s final outing as the iconic superhero.

By now, superhero TV fans are more or less used to series not maintaining much connection with their cinematic peers, but FX and FOX’s X-Men two-fer of Legion and an untitled mutant series sparks hope anew. To wit, X-Men director Bryan Singer says Legion could take place in the movie universe after all, while both “will relate to future X-Men movies.”

As FX began moving forward with Noah Hawley’s X-Men universe TV series Legion, many wondered what happened to FOX’s own project based on the Hellfire Club. That series has apparently cooled, while Burn Notice vet Matt Nix and Bryan Singer develop a new X-Men series for FOX with close ties to an underground mutant group.

Despite the diminishing returns of the X-Men series, they have accomplished at least one inarguably impressive feat: taking a supporting antagonist like Mystique and transforming her into a great, complex leading character, worthy of her place in Apocalypse as a mutant role model to Xavier’s gifted youngsters. But is she worthy of her own standalone movie? Bryan Singer certainly thinks so, though he seems to be taking Jennifer Lawrence’s contributions to the character for granted.

X-Men: Apocalypse hits theaters tomorrow (technically tonight for you early birds), and you already have a pretty good idea of what you’re going to see in Bryan Singer’s latest X-sequel: bald James McAvoy, young versions of familiar mutants, an unrecognizable Oscar Isaac as the titular villain, etc. You’ve seen the trailers, you get it. But there’s at least one scene that we won’t get to see — at least not in the theater — and the way Bryan Singer describes it, it sounds like it could have been pretty fun.

Our first real look at Oscar Isaac’s titular villain in X-Men: Apocalypse wasn’t particularly great, to say the least. Featuring a purple-toned En Sabah Nur, that early official photo inspired a flood of jokes on social media, with people comparing him to everything from a Power Rangers villain to Violet from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Apocalypse has thankfully looked a lot less colorful in the trailers released since then, and with the X-Men sequel hitting theaters next week, Isaac and director Bryan Singer have a few thoughts about their villain’s aesthetic.