5 Clues For What Comes After X-Men: Apocalypse

While X-Men: Apocalypse is rightfully being seen as a fairly average flick within Fox's X-Men franchise, leaving much to be desired, there were many hints scattered throughout the film predicting what could be coming next in the X-Men movie universe.

1. The Dark Phoenix Saga

Apocalypse made it blatantly clear that the young Jean Grey will play a huge role in the future of the X-Men franchise.

Though this may have been clear by her unleashing the Phoenix Force to end Apocalypse, what made this most apparent was in Apocalypse's final words, "All is revealed."

Clearly, this is all a tease for future Phoenix nonsense, maybe most logically leaning toward the Dark Phoenix Saga (done rightly, this time?). Or the possibility for Avengers vs. X-Men?!?

2. Mr. Sinister

For most though, the post-credits scene may have left you wondering why you stuck around to watch it at all. It suggests that we'll be seeing Mister Sinister in the future (Essex Corporation is his). Mr. Sinister is a longtime foe of the X-Men in the comics and, despite the lame name, is quite a bit more powerful than the man who gave him powers (Apocalypse).

Though the X-Men films have continuously had one-off villains (except for Stryker, who they just can't seem to get rid of), I'm hoping that Fox is taking some notes from Marvel (a la Thanos) and setting Mr. Sinister up to have a much larger role in their X-Men universe (particularly in working to tie their universe together better, i.e. The Wolverine 3, Gambit, Deadpool).

3. X-Force

While Psylocke slinking away from the final battle may not seem like much, it does suggest that this won’t be the last time we see her on the big screen. The X-Force movie that’s supposedly in early development is one of the most obvious places for Psylocke to show up in her anti-hero role, since this character becomes a member of that mutant team in the comics. This could even add more of a connective tissue for Deadpool, which would be incredible, and...

4. X-23

For those of you not in the know, X-23 is a female clone of Wolverine. What I found most interesting about the post-credits scene was that the Essex minions were there to collect a vial of Wolverine's blood (along with some other vials). This has to be alluding to Laura Kinney, right? With Hugh Jackman throwing in the towel after Wolverine 3 (presumably playing out the Old Man Logan storyline), X-23 could easily take over his vacancy (much like in the comics).

5. Cable

While this won't come as too big of a surprise to fans, having already been promised Cable for Deadpool 2, it's still something to look forward to.

In the comics, Mr. Sinister experimented on mutants in search for the perfect mutant. This lead him to create a clone of Jean Grey (named Madelyne Pryor) who eventually gets together with Cyclops, later giving birth to the time-traveling mutant, Cable. This brings about so much possibility for future X-Men films, from Deadpool or X-Force or (obviously) multiple-timelines coming together.