What We Want From X-Men: Apocalypse

We're still about a year and a half out from X-Men: Apocalypse being released in theaters, but as a diehard X-Men fan, I already just can't wait.

This measured excitement has already be fanned larger be early talks about the film: Oscar Isaacs cast as the titular big bad, Apocalypse, the possible return Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Storm, as teenagers, rumors of cameos by upcoming solo film stars like Gambit.

There's plenty to look forward to in X-Men: Apocalypse, but much of this is just the icing on the cake. So what do we really want to see in X-Men: Apocalypse? Check out the list below.

The Four Horsemen

You can't have an Apocalypse without the four horsemen, right? That's how we feel about it. Turning mutants into his Four Horsemen, willingly or otherwise, has been Apocalypse's modus operandi from his debut in X-Factor, when he turned Warren Worthington from the Angel into his Archangel. He's repeated this pattern plenty of times over the years, and we'd love to see that tale brought to the big screen.

The inclusion of the Apocalypse's Horsemen was already hinted it in the post-credits scene to X-Men: Days of Future Past, where they can be seen standing behind a young En Sabah Nur. Hopefully, some version of them is planned for inclusion in X-Men: Apocalypse as well.

The Xavier Institute

While X-Men: Days of Future Past was a fantastic movie, one thing it was lacking was a functioning school for mutants. There was a reason for this – Charles Xavier had become, essentially, a mutant drug addict who lived in a mostly empty mansion with his drug dealer, so he wasn't really in a state to run a children's school – but we still missed it.

Rumor has it that teenaged versions of Cyclops, Storm, and Jean Grey will be showing up in Apocalypse. We hope that this means we'll see the Institute up and running again, or at least be reopened as a coda to the prequel trilogy.

The Danger Room

One of the coolest parts of the Xavier Institute is the Danger Room. We've only seen the Danger Room appear once in the X-Men movies, and that was in the weakest film of the lot, X-Men: The Last Stand. In that film, it appeared in its modern incarnation, capable of projecting realistic holograms for the X-Men to test themselves against.

What we hope to see in X-Men: Apocalypse is an early version of the Danger Room, inspired by the classic days when it was just a room full of flamethrowers and rotating knives. It could easily be Beast's next project, having completed his work on Cerebro, and could make for a really fun training sequence.

Teen Romance

Another element of classic X-Men stories that was missing in Days of Future Past was a healthy dose of romance and sexual tension. With Jean and Cyclops rumored to be coming back, it's easy to see them bringing the romance angle back with them. Wolverine's a bit old in the prequel era to be entering into a love triangle with teen Scott and Jean, but, with Mystique seemingly out of the picture, perhaps young Hank McCoy will prove a new contender for Jean's affection, as he has in the pages of All-New X-Men.

New Mutants

A lot of the things we've listed above revolve around the welcome return of several characters we've seen in previous films. However, we don't want to forget that part of the fun of the X-Men movies is getting to see new mutants, with their unique power sets, brought to the big screen in each new installment.

Remember how awesome seeing Quicksilver do his thing in X-Men: Days of Future Past was? We want that moment again, with a different character, in X-Men: Apocalypse. Writer/producer Simon Kinberg has already mentioned a few mutants with cool powers that he has been wanting to put on screen, including Psylocke, the Scarlet Witch and Cable. Hopefully one of them, or another equally cool mutant, gets a show-stopping scene in X-Men: Apocalypse.

X-Men: Apocalypse opens in theaters May 27, 2016.