‘X-Men: Apocalypse': Who’s Who in Enormous Roster of Mutants (Photos)

The newest “X-Men” film has an astonishing number of characters to keep track of — this brief explainer should help you sort ‘em out

“X-Men: Apocalypse” is here, and boy does it have a lot of characters. Some of them we’re meeting for the first time. Some we’ve met before but with a different actor in the role. A few have faces we blessedly recognize because their faces appeared numerous times in other “X-Men” movies.

Before we get into this, I should go ahead and point out that “X-Men: Apocalypse” takes place in 1983, before the events of “X-Men,” “X2,” “X-Men: The Last Stand” and “The Wolverine” — though time travel in “Days of Future Past” made it so the events of those movies, as well as “X-Men Origins: Worlverine” (set in 1979), never occurred. If you wanna know what that means, check out our backstory explainer for the “X-Men” series.

Anyway, I’m just point this out because “Apocalypse” contains younger versions of many characters from those earlier films, recast with new actors. So let’s get to it.

Professor X

Powers: Telepathy, mind control, and stuff

He’s the boss of the X-Men, founder of the mutant school, more or less the main good guy. Believes mutants can coexist peacefully with normal humans.

Will this be the one where we see him go bald? Yes! Finally, we will get a cinematic depiction of Professor X going bald in “Apocalypse.”

 

Magneto

Powers: Can manipulate metal with his mind

More or less the main main bad guy of the series, except this time he’s actually just a henchman. Professor X’s lifelong ideological nemesis. Believes mutants should be the boss of everyone.

Mystique

Powers: Shapeshifter!

She’s the main blue one, yeah? Indeed, of all the blue mutants (there are four in this movie) she’s the one who gets the most screentime. Grew up with Xavier, though has a mean streak that often means they don’t get along too well. Professor X and Magneto have basically been warring for her soul in “First Class” and “Days of Future Past.”

Storm

Powers: controls the weather

We saw a weather mutant before but she didn’t look like this? Yes! Storm was played by Halle Berry and was a protagonist in four previous “X-Men” movies. This time it’s not Halle Berry, though, and also this time Storm is a bad guy, as one of Apocalypse’s four horsemen.