After thousands of years sleeping, Apocalypse is waking up in 1983 to remake the cinematic X-Men world in his own image. We’ve seen some of the villain’s special abilities at work in the X-Men: Apocalypse previews, from his subtle persuasion to knocking out a group of workers instantly, and it’s clear that he’s the single most powerful individual the mutant superhero team has ever faced. One of the opportunities fans will get to see just how mighty Apocalypse really is will be a huge fight between the villain and Professor Charles Xavier, and we’re using that adjective literally.
In their latest coverage of X-Men: Apocalypse, Empire briefly detailed a “psychic battle” between Charles and Professor X where the Egyptian mutant grows to “gargantuan proportions” and Xavier can jump out of his wheelchair and deliver roundhouse kicks. Here’s how James McAvoy described the brawl:
I got to beat the shit out of Apocalypse the other day. Charles gets pretty violent on his ass. And Apocalypse tries to do something to me that’s pretty fucking brutal. I think that night leap out at people.
If this fight sounds familiar, it’s because we’ve seen glimpses of it in the two trailers released so far. In the middle of the night at the X-Mansion, Xavier threw a punch at Apocalypse, but he catches it without breaking a sweat. After his eyes turned white, he grew enormous and his giant hand slammed Xavier to the ground. Mass manipulation is one of Apocalypse’s powers in the comics, so it’s cool to see and hear he’ll be using it in X-Men: Apocalypse, even though it’s unfortunate that one of the good guys is on the receiving end. Fortunately, judging by James McCoy’s comments, it doesn’t sound like Xavier will be so easily defeated.
Although Xavier was able to walk for real in X-Men: Days of Future Past thanks to Hank McCoy’s drug, he opted to return to his wheelchair-bound state in the latter half of the movie so he could use his telepathic powers again. So a psychic encounter was the only way we would see Xavier “walking,” which happened a few times in the original X-Men movies with Patrick Stewart. It’s unclear when exactly this brawl will take place in the movie, whether it’s while Xavier is dreaming or when he’s using Cerebro. Also keep in mind that just because this is a psychic battle doesn’t mean there won’t be consequences in the real world. If Charles gets defeated, his body or mind could suffer debilitating damage. Heck, if Apocalypse ends up losing, maybe that will somehow brings his power levels down, allowing the heroes to eventually beat him in the climax.
X-Men: Apocalypse arrives in theaters on May 27.
