It’s been a big week for 20th Century Fox’s upcoming superhero sequel X-Men: Days of Future Past, what with 25 special edition Empire covers featuring much of the cast [see here], as well as two batches of images [see here and here], and word from director Bryan Singer that Anna Paquin’s Rogue might still feature in the movie, despite him cutting an action sequence featuring the original X-Men trilogy star [see here]. However, Singer and producer-screenwriter Simon Kinberg (shepherd of Fox’s Marvel universe) have taken a break from Days of Future Past to look further into the future – 2016, specifically – and the studio’s next mutant offering X-Men: Apocalypse.

“[X-Men: Apocalypse] is more of a First Class sequel [and] it will take place some time after [Days of Future Past],” Singer told Empire (via SHH). “What happens in this movie brings about what’ll happen in that movie… One thing that interests me is the notion of ancient mutants. What would people thousands of years ago, without the benefit of science, think mutants were? And more importantly, what would mutants thousands of years ago think they were? Gods? Titans? Angels? Demons? And if such mutants did exist thousands of years ago, what became of them? Did one survive?”

Kinberg – whose other Fox-Marvel credits include X-Men: The Last Stand, X-Men: First Class and the upcoming The Fantastic Four – went on to add that, “Age of Apocalypse was one of my favorite stores,” he said. “We like the stakes of it, and it feels like a story that could impact a lot of our favorite characters in big, dramatic ways. We feel it’s a very different story from Days of Future Past. For starters, it’s a very different villain, and the characters will be in very different places emotionally.”

X-Men: Apocalypse is set for release on May 26th 2016 while X-Men: Days of Future Past hits screens May 23rd this year.