Hey, you know that spiffy new X-Men: Days of Future Past movie coming out next year? They're already working on the sequel.
Director Bryan Singer surprised everyone last week on Twitter by announcing the next X-Men movie even though Days of Future Past doesn't arrive in theaters until May. Singer tweeted the words "#Xmen #Apocalypse 2016!", which apparently means there's going to be a movie called X-Men: Apocalypse coming out in 2016.
Vulture has confirmed that Singer will indeed helm X-Men: Apocalypse after finishing work on Days of Future Past, making this his fourth X-Men movie. According to the article, Apocalypse will be a direct sequel to story elements set up in the end of Days of Future Past. Also, the 2016 film will continue with the younger cast of actors introduced in 2011's X-Men: First Class, which includes James McAvoy as Professor Charles Xavier, Michael Fassbender as Magento and Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique.
The move is a considerable showing of 20th Century Fox's faith in Singer, even though the production cost of Days of Future Past has reportedly grown to become the second most expensive movie the studio has ever made after James Cameron's Avatar.
As for Apocalypse's story, presumably the movie centers around the X-villain Apocalypse, who was created by Louise Simonson and Jackson Guice and first introduced in X-Factor (vol.1) #6 in 1986. First Showing claimed to have spoilers of the Days of Future Past post-credits bonus scene that sets up Apocalypse, but Singer debunked at least one unsettling element of the supposed spoilers in another Twitter posting yesterday -- "#Apocalypse is not an alien. :) #XMenApocalypse" So far, there's been no confirmation if the rest of the information from First Showing is actually legit.
X-Men: Days of Future Past is scheduled to arrive in theaters on May 23, 2014. X-Men: Apocalypse is currently slated to arrive on May 27, 2016.