X-Men: Apocalypse - The Plan Is For Bryan Singer To Direct, Some Original Cast To Return

In a new interview with The Daily Beast, X-Men: Days of Future Past writer Simon Kinberg revealed that the plan at present is for director Bryan Singer to return to direct X-Men: Apocalypse. That's been commonly assumed for a while, but following a lawsuit filed against Singer last month and his departure from the press tour for Days of Future Past, many fans and critics have wondered whether he would be allowed back behind the camera of a major franchise while the litigation is still pending (something that will probably be necessary since the release date is slated for 2016). Here's the pertinent piece of the interview:

Is the sequel, X-Men: Apocalypse, going to just feature the younger generation of characters? It will focus primarily on the First Class cast, but it will certainly have some of the original cast involved, too. Will Bryan Singer be back in the director's chair for Apocalypse? That is the plan.

When asked about the Singer allegations, Kinberg essentially opted to change the subject, not commenting on the pending litigation and instead explaining the appeal of keeping Singer around assuming he's not a liability. "Well, I don't really want to speak on anything outside the movie, but I believe Bryan created the template for the modern superhero movie," Kinberg said. "I remember where I was when I saw X-Men, and I thought he redefined the way people made comic book films. All the films that followed in the subsequent years, whether it be the Batman movies, the Spider-Man movies, etc., all took cues from X-Men, because he made it grounded, dramatic, really emotional, and somewhat political. He's the architect of new superhero movies, and I love what he did with Days of Future Past."