Here’s the ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’ Postcredits Stinger Explained

Stay through the credits of X-Men: Days of Future Past and you will be treated to one final scene. However, if you don’t read comics and your only exposure to the X-Men is what’s in the movies, you may be left asking yourself, “Wait, who is that guy?” Let’s explain.

Warning: The following will explain exactly what’s in the postcredits stinger of X-Men: Days of Future Past. It reveals nothing else about the movie, but consider this your spoiler warning.

The scene is of a robed figure standing on a sand dune in the desert, a legion of worshippers chanting below him. His arms are raised and in the distance we see him building one of Egypt’s great pyramids with nothing but the power of his mind. As the camera moves from his back to his front, it’s revealed that the robed figure is a thin, almost alien-looking man with pale blue skin. 

If you know the next X-Men movie (hitting theaters May 27, 2016) has already been titled X-Men: Apocalypse, you could probably figure out that the blue guy in the robes is the titular bad guy from the yet-to-film sequel, but considering Bryan Singer’s version of him looks absolutely nothing like the muscular, armor-wearing Apocalypse in the comics or various TV shows, you might be left scratching your head. The movie doesn’t name him, but yes, this figure is supposed to be Apocalypse.

But who is Apocalypse? We’ll quote our resident Marvel expert John Gholson from one one of his Marvel Studios Countdowns:

Apocalypse has an incredibly convoluted backstory, but in the simplest terms, he’s a mutant despot, born in ancient Egypt, with an idea of mutant supremacy in which only the strongest of mutants are worthy of a life. His schemes against the X-Men typically see him engaging in genetic experimentation or situations in which mutants are pitted against other mutants, for his own Darwinian results. In the “Age of Apocalypse” storyline, the X-Men experience an alternate future in which Apocalypse controls America as a ruthless mutant military state.

As Gholson points out, Apocalypse has been behind a number of different plots to make other mutants do his bidding, so it’s anyone’s guess as to which thread Bryan Singer and screenwriter Simon Kinberg will be using in the next movie. One aspect of the character is consistent across the board though: he’s the first mutant ever and he’s got a set of powers so ridiculous that he can basically do anything. So, yeah, good luck in 2016, X-Men.

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