Fanboys Anonymous

It has been announced by Brian Singer that in 2016, the follow-up to X-Men: Days of Future Past will be called X-Men: Apocalypse, which naturally has to feature one of the series most powerful (if not THE most powerful) enemies, Apocalypse.


A Little Background on the Character:

Generally speaking, Apocalypse's backstory is that he was born thousands of years ago in Egypt, and at that time, he was named En Sabah Nur (or "The First One"), which is referenced many times to imply that he was one of the first mutants in history.

His powers are immense and include virtually everything out there. He is immortal, invulnerable, has superhuman strength, can alter his size and molecular structure, manipulate matter, and pretty much anything else you can name.

Challenges on the Screen:

1) Big frame, unless you go with CGI
2) Intimidating
3) Sense of being regal

In a lot of ways, this is similar to trying to figure out who you would cast as Thanos, which still hasn't been confirmed yet despite Damion Poitier playing him in The Avengers.

Who wins this fist fight?

If he were still alive, my top choice would probably be Michael Clarke Duncan. Unfortunately, that's no longer a possibility. I've never been able to think of anyone else that can do the character justice with a relative size proportion, so instead, I think they need to go with heavy CGI and in that case, you don't need anyone that particularly resembles the character at all.

If you're going with just voices, my first thoughts run to Keith David or Kevin Michael Richardson. If you're going for an actor who can provide a voice and also do the facial expressions and such, I'm going with Javier Bardem. He's nowhere near as physically big as the character, but neither is Mark Ruffalo, and he was the Hulk, so that's something to get around.

Bardem has an evil-looking face, and I think it can be manipulated enough to look like Apocalypse. Plus, he has a deep and distinct enough voice that, with some extra editing, I would buy into it. Being Spanish obviously isn't the same as being Egyptian, but it's much more believable to me to have someone like Bardem play the character than a stark white Irish person or someone who sounds like they're from Brooklyn, that's for sure.


My first thought on casting Apocalypse also was Michael Clarke Duncan. He had the size, the voice, and just overall aura that represent the character. Since Michael is no longer with us (may he rest in peace), I would go with Idris Elba. I love him in the Thor movies. Idris as Heimdall just exudes royalty—a trait that Apocalypse himself exhibits—which is a perfect reason to cast Idris. His voice alone would make a great Apocalypse, since it's deep and carries authority. The studio may have to CGI Idris's size, but I can't see that being a problem. Idris Elba is the only actor I can think of being able to capture the essence that is Apocalypse.


When I imagine how they might want to portray Apocalypse aesthetically, I imagine something of a Hellboy-esque prosthetics job with a touch of CGI. Then again, I might be wrong. They might go for full-on mocap suits and have a voiceover actor instead. So I'm looking to take the middle ground and try to imagine not only who would look similar to Apocalypse, but also who I imagine could pull off the voice.

First off, I'm going out on a limb to suggest Vin Diesel stop trying to be so likeable and go full villain. The guy would look spot on with a bit of blue and grey greasepaint on his slaphead and, of course, the prosthetics. He also has a very deep, aggressive voice, which I imagine would work well. Otherwise, because Fox has been very ballsy in casting the X-Men franchise, it's very possible they may go with a great big hulking wrestler superstar to provide both the bulk and a huge boost in popularity. We've all seen how monstrously big Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has been getting for his films over the last year or two. The guy can play a villain, and as he proved with Fast & Furious and GI Joe: Retaliation, he has all a filmmaker needs to turn an ailing project around and make it a success.


Based on body size and facial structure, I like Jason Momoa from Conan to play Apocalypse. He's massive and very serious and has a great face for it. I don't know if it's fitting since his skin isn't quite dark enough (to be Egyptian, I mean) and we would have to do something about that voice, but he's the one who comes to mind. If the character is going to be portrayed in any way like the animated series, then maybe it deserves a total rethink.