“X-Men: Apocalypse” is here, and boy does it have a lot of characters. Some of them we’re meeting for the first time. Some we’ve met before but with a different actor in the role. A few have faces we blessedly recognize because their faces appeared numerous times in other “X-Men” movies.
Before we get into this, I should go ahead and point out that “X-Men: Apocalypse” takes place in 1983, before the events of “X-Men,” “X2,” “X-Men: The Last Stand” and “The Wolverine” — though time travel in “Days of Future Past” made it so the events of those movies, as well as “X-Men Origins: Worlverine” (set in 1979), never occurred. If you wanna know what that means, check out our backstory explainer for the “X-Men” series.
Anyway, I’m just pointing this out because “Apocalypse” contains younger versions of many characters from those earlier films, recast with new actors. So let’s get to it.
Professor X
Powers: telepathy, mind control, and stuff
He’s the boss of the X-Men, founder of the mutant school, more or less the main good guy. Believes mutants can coexist peacefully with normal humans.
Will this be the one where we see him go bald? Yes! Finally, we will get a cinematic depiction of Professor X going bald in “Apocalypse.”
Magneto
Powers: can manipulate metal with his mind
More or less the main main bad guy of the series, except this time he’s actually just a henchman. Professor X’s lifelong ideological nemesis. Believes mutants should be the boss of everyone.
Mystique
Powers: shapeshifter!
She’s the main blue one, yeah? Indeed, of all the blue mutants (there are four in this movie) she’s the one who gets the most screen time. Grew up with Xavier, though has a mean streak that often means they don’t get along too well. Professor X and Magneto have basically been warring for her soul in “First Class” and “Days of Future Past.”
Apocalypse
Powers: all of them
All of them? For real. He’s thought to be the first mutant, born in ancient Egypt and evolving new powers on the regular over the course of his incredibly long life. That’s why he’s such a scary bad guy who’s a real threat to destroy the world. Which actually is his goal in this movie.
Storm
Powers: controls the weather
We saw a weather mutant before but she didn’t look like this? Yes! Storm was played by Halle Berry and was a protagonist in four previous “X-Men” movies. This time it’s not Halle Berry, though, and also this time Storm is a bad guy, as one of Apocalypse’s four horsemen.
Psylocke
Powers: telepathy, psychic blasts, an awesome pink laser sword
This is the Olivia Munn one? The bad guy? That’s right. Psylocke is one of Apocalypse’s Four Horsemen.
Angel
Powers: can fly (duh), fling projectiles
Wait, wasn’t there already an Angel who died? Yes, that was a different one, played by Zoë Kravitz in “First Class,” who was killed off screen between movies by “Days of Future Past” villain Bolivar Trask. This one (Ben Hardy) is one of Apocalypse’s Four Horsemen and is still alive.
Beast
Power: turns into a blue guy who has claws and a beard and is really strong. Basically a blue werewolf.
Have we seen him before? He was in “First Class” and “Days of Future Past” played by Nicholas Hoult and pretty much operating as Professor X’s nerd sidekick. In “The Last Stand” he was Frasier.
Cyclops
Power: a laser beam comes out of his eyeballs any time he opens his eyes
That’s troublesome. It’s OK because he has cool glasses that keep it under control.
We previously met Cyclops in four other “X-Men” movies, in which he was played by James Marsden. How he’s played by Tye Sheridan and he’s probably going to date Jean Grey.
Havok
Power: shoots a laser beam out of his chest
Another laser guy? Not coincidentally, the two laser guys are related — Havok is actually Cyclops’ brother. He’s played by 25-year-old actor Lucas Till.
Jean Grey
Powers: telepathy and telekinesis, of the most powerful sort
Is that Sansa Stark? “Game of Thrones” actress Sophie Turner has taken the mantle of Jean Grey from Famke Janssen, who originated the role in the previous “X-Men” movies. She and Cyclops will become the X-Men’s power couple.
Quicksilver
Powers: runs real fast
There are a lot of those types of superheroes, huh. Indeed, there’s the Flash over in the DC side of the world, and a different version of Quicksilver in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (Wanda Maximoff’s brother in “Avengers: Age of Ultron”). This one (played by Evan Peters from “American Horror Story”) first appeared in “Days of Future Past,” and he has a surprise family connection to Magneto.
Jubilee
Powers: can generate explosions, project an energy shield
Oh, that’s neat. It is. Fortunately, she uses these powers for good, as a cool #teen X-Man (played by Lana Condor) who’s been enrolled at Xavier’s mutant school.
Nightcrawler
Powers: teleports, is blue, has a tail
A blue teleporter guy with a tail sounds familiar. It’d be weird if you forgot about the blue teleporter guy with a tail. We previously saw Nightcrawler in “X2,” in which he was played by Alan Cumming. Now he’s played by Kodi Smit-McPhee.
Stryker
Powers: none!
Why is he listed here? Because this is his fourth movie appearance and he’s been played by three different actors: Brian Cox in “X2,” Danny Huston in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” and Josh Helman in this movie. He’s a bad guy who wants to kidnap mutants to do weird experiments on them. And maybe weaponize them.
Moira MacTaggert
Power: is really smart.
That’s not a superpower. No, it is not.
So… Moira (Rose Byrne) was a secret supporter of Xavier’s mutant school back in the day. She studies mutants in a non-invasive way and is generally nice. In comics lore, she has a romantic history with Xavier. In movie lore Xavier wiped her memory at the end of “First Class” for some reason.
Wolverine
Powers: body self-heals any wound short of decapitation or total destruction, is immortal.
I know all about Wolverine, you don’t have to explain him. Great, thanks.
