‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ Concept Art Reveals Archangel

From the moment we knew that the next X-Men movie was going to be titled X-Men: Apocalypse, comic geeks knew to expect the return of Angel. But not just any Angel, and certainly not the traditional, angelic version that showed up in X-Men: The Last Stand. Now, all of those geeky suspicions and predictions have come to fruition. Director Bryan Singer has revealed new concept art that shows off Archangel, the nastier, slightly more villainous version of the character.

Speaking with Empire (via Comic Book Movie), Singer first confirmed that actor Ben Hardy will play the winged mutant in his film:

Ben Hardy is Angel – I shall confirm it for you! But he’s not a very nice Angel! And that’s all I’ll say…

And that is indeed all he needs to say because that concept art says everything else! In X-Men comics lore, Angel had his wings torn off, sending him spiraling into depression. Then the villainous Apocalypse showed up, created new wings for him and transformed him into Archangel, whose wingspan is now capable of a lot more than just flight. Naturally, Archangel then found himself torn between his inner goodness and the bad guy who gave him his powers back.

If this all sounds a little silly, that’s because it is. Imagine a movie where the great Oscar Isaac, playing an immortal supervillain, builds a set of razor-sharp wings and attaches them to the body of a guy whose normal wings were removed. That’s just nutty. Yet we couldn’t be more interested in seeing how Singer brings this storyline to the big screen. The X-Men movies have often sidestepped more bizarre and far-out corners of the comics, but this is as weird as they get.

X-Men: Apocalypse is slated to hit theaters on May 27, 2016.