As with so many Marvel-related movies, the post-credits scene of X-Men: Days of Future Past gave us a tantalizing glimpse of the franchise's plans. This time around, we caught our first glimpse of the titular villain of X-Men: Apocalypse, as well as his horsemen. But like most big bads, Apocalypse comes with an entourage of lesser villains, rivals, and the occasional clone. Given what we know about him [Ed.—and believe me, that's just about everything], here are six of those other characters, along with their odds of making it onto the big screen.
Every good despot needs a treacherous lieutenant. Born Nathaniel Essex, Sinister is the Galvatron to Apocalypse's Unicron. He was a contemporary of Charles Darwin, ostracized by his fellow scientists for his dubious ethics and obsession with human mutation. Granted relative immortality by Apocalypse, he continued his experiments from the shadows, working toward their common goal of pushing evolution to its limits—although Sinister's endgame is generally more complex than world domination, and he's betrayed and even posed as Apocalypse more than once.In the comics. Mr. Sinister is the ultimate long-game villain. He's spent a century and a half shaping mutant history, and he's been a significant force in the lives of at least two characters confirmed for X-Men: Apocalypse. Plus, he's glam as hell.
Odds of making it into X-Men: Apocalypse: low. In addition to his relationship to Apocalypse, Sinister is a major player in both Cyclops and Gambit's backstories; on the other hand, he's an incredibly complex character with a super weird history, and he doesn't really fit the aesthetic of the current generation of cinematic X-Men. If we see him at all, it'll probably be in a significantly modified form—or folded into another character, like Ozymandias.
Mr. Sinister wasn't Apocalypse's first right-hand man: that privilege goes to Ozymandias (no, not the one from Watchmen), who's been the big bad's oracle and scribe since his early days stealing alien technology in Ancient Egypt. Unlike Sinister, who enthusiastically teamed up with Apocalypse to further his own ends, Ozymandias's alliance with En Sabah Nur has always been a little reluctant; like Sinister, he's both betrayed and impersonated Apocalypse on multiple occasions.
Odds of making it into X-Men: Apocalypse: High, although they'll probably change his name. The post-credits scene in Days of Future Past makes it clear that they're sticking with Apocalypse's Egyptian roots, which means Ozymandias will fit right in.
In the far future, the AI from X-Factor's mobile base of operations is part of the technology that lets Cable jump around in time. It's also been a moon base for bad-guy Stryfe, briefly acquired a robot body in an alternate timeline, and controlled the satellite base Greymalkin.
Odds of making it into X-Men: Apocalypse: Middling. The structures Apocalypse is manipulating in the clip we've seen look like they could reasonably be components of Ship, and a flying fortress is pretty much never not cool. Odds of a sentient Ship are probably lower.
Born Nathan Christopher Summers, Cable is the future kid of Cyclops and a clone of Jean Grey—the result of generations of genetic manipulation by Mr. Sinister in his quest to find a way out from under Apocalypse's thumb (just run with it, okay?). Pulled into the distant future as an infant to save him from a techno-organic virus, Cable grew up to become a messianic figure of sorts: the man destined to bring down Apocalypse.
Odds of making it into X-Men: Apocalypse: Low. Cable has a lot working against him: he's the embodiment of the big-muscles-big-guns-cool-scar era of superhero comics, his backstory is hopelessly convoluted (he's technically the future kid of two characters we'll see as teenagers or young adults in the film), and X-Men just did a time travel story. That said, Cable has been used effectively more than once as a mysterious man-with-no-name deus ex machina, which neatly bypasses the need to delve into the crazy.
If Cable is the embodiment of the '90s, Stryfe is a bad clone of the embodiment of the '90s, which somehow manages to make him even more '90s. Freakin' X-Men, man.
Remember how baby Cable got pulled into the far future to save him from a techno-organic virus? Well, it was touch-and-go for a while, and during that time, the cult that was raising him decided to clone the kid, just in case. When Apocalypse raided the facility, he found the clone baby, thought it was the original, and decided to raise it as his son / spare emergency body, only to later reject it when he found out that it was a clone. That's Stryfe. Stryfe—reasonably, considering everything—has some issues. He grows up bent on vengeance on both Apocalypse and the X-Men, which makes him a wild card in this fight. He also looks just like Cable, which opens the door for some hilarious comedy-of-errors genocide frame-ups.
Odds of making it into X-Men: Apocalypse: As a clone of Cable, low to nil. As faceless lieutenant or horseman of Apocalypse, fair to middling.
Evan Sabahnur is Apocalypse, resurrected as a child, with no memory of his former life (he's technically a clone of a resurrected Apocalypse, but at this point, the distinction is mostly academic). Raised as an earnest do-gooder in a virtual version of Omaha by loving virtual parents and a fun uncle who's actually mutant superspy Fantomex (again: just run with it), he's now a student at the Jean Grey school.
Odds of making it into X-Men: Apocalypse: Slim to none, which is a shame, because he's pretty damn adorable.
