X-Men: Apocalypse is a 2016 American superhero film directed and produced by Bryan Singer and written by Simon Kinberg from a story by Singer, Kinberg, Michael Dougherty, and Dan Harris. The film is based on the fictional X-Men characters that appear in Marvel Comics. It is the sixth mainline installment in the X-Men film series and the ninth installment overall. It is the sequel to X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) and stars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Oscar Isaac, Nicholas Hoult, Rose Byrne, Tye Sheridan, Sophie Turner, Olivia Munn, and Lucas Till. In the film, the ancient mutant En Sabah Nur / Apocalypse is inadvertently revived in 1983, and he plans to wipe out modern civilization and take over the world, leading the X-Men to try to stop him and defeat his team of mutants. The film was announced by Singer in December 2013, with Kinberg, Dougherty, and Harris attached to develop the story. Casting began in October 2014, while principal photography commenced in April 2015 in Montreal and ended in August of the same year. X-Men: Apocalypse premiered in London on May 9, 2016, and was released in the United States on May 27, 2016 in RealD 3D, IMAX 3D, 4DX and Dolby Cinema formats by 20th Century Fox. The film received mixed reviews from critics, criticizing its overloaded action, visual effects, story, narrative decisions, character development, and portrayal of Apocalypse. A sequel, titled Dark Phoenix, was released on June 7, 2019. Plot In 3600 BC, the aged but powerful mutant En Sabah Nur rules ancient Egypt. Following a ceremony in which his consciousness is transferred into another man’s body in order to gain his healing factor, he and his four followers are ambushed. In the process his followers are killed and he is entombed alive. In 1983, Alex Summers takes his brother Scott to Professor Charles Xavier's educational institute, hoping that Xavier and Hank McCoy will teach him to control his mutation for shooting optic beams. Scott meets the telepathic and telekinetic Jean Grey, and the two develop an attraction. En Sabah Nur is awakened by a group of worshippers. He befriends orphan Ororo Munroe and learns about humanity. Deciding that humanity has lost its way, he plans to remake the world. Munroe becomes his follower after he enhances her power. In East Berlin, shape-shifting mutant Raven discovers Kurt Wagner, a mutant who can teleport. Raven