When X-Men: Apocalypse was first announced, a big question was what the titular villain would look like. The comic book character he’s based on is especially hard to adapt convincingly, and many fans were left wondering if the team would opt to create an entirely CG character like the Hulk or use practical effects and makeup. Then Oscar Isaac was cast and you’re not going to hide a handsome face like that in CG (plus Bryan Singer usually prefers practical makeup). But then the first image was released and fans were less than ecstatic about the costume. Why’s he purple? Why’s he so small? Where are his weird lip lines? Well, it turns out Oscar Isaac wasn’t too thrilled with it either.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Oscar Isaac was able to shed his light on his opinion on the first image released of Apocalypse. The Star Wars: Force Awakens actor had to agree with fans that it wasn’t a good representation of how the character actually looks in the film.
I was not super pleased with those first photos that ran. When you look at those things, you think that’s the representation of the character, and it was a shot from when we were coming out of a portal, and the portal light is purple and so suddenly everyone thinks that the character is purple which is not the case.
Apocalypse is a character that’s gone through a lot of evolution visually as the film gets closer to its release date. You can see in every trailer that there’s always a little tweak, like changing his shade of blue or giving him more lip lines. Bryan Singer even said they are still toying with the sound of his voice.
Plus, let’s be real for a second; Apocalypse is really ugly. He’s got that appeal very specific to the decade he was created and, while that works for comics, it’s tough to show in live action. I mean, look at this guy:
What a doof. It's not just the size that's the issue, it's just a design that's got a lot going on. This makes the costume nearly impossible to craft for real life. You can really only create it in CG, but as Bryan Singer says, he wanted Apocalypse to "be able to connect with the horsemen and with the movie." Live action is usually the way to go for that.
The production team may have considered making a more comic accurate version of the character, but the movie costume has really grown on me. It’s probably the best we could have hoped for given that Apocalypse has a face even his mother couldn't love.
Apocalypse and a couple other blue people will be appearing X-Men: Apocalypse, which hits theater at the end of the month on May 27.
