'X-Men: Apocalypse' Will Feature A Big Mystique And Magneto Relationship

X-Men: Days of Future Past cleaned up the X-Men movie timeline (by erasing most of it) and set up some power dynamics that will be further explored in the next film, X-Men: Apocalypse, due in 2016. The core dynamics in the series are now between Xavier, Magneto, and Mystique. A Magneto and Mystique romance has been floated in the past, but now it sounds like Apocalypse will see the mentor relationship between Magneto and Mystique blossom into a full-blown red-on-blue romance. THR says,

Apocalypse is being crafted around Lawrence's Mystique character and Michael Fassbender's Magneto. A source who has seen the script says Fox will take full advantage of Lawrence and Fassbender's star power, placing Mystique and Magneto's romance front and center.

In other words, this decision was likely made in part based on the popularity of Jennifer Lawrence, and on Fox's desire to keep her as a central character in the series. Is a big relationship between Magneto and Mystique something that makes sense for the story? Hard to say, but look at it this way: Fox wanting to keep Jennifer Lawrence front and center means the rest of the X-Men reality might bend a bit to accommodate her.

So the issue isn't so much the romance — the X-Men stories are essentially super-powered soap operas and romantic entanglements have always been a big part of the comics and films — but what else might be sacrificed in order to keep Lawrence and Michael Fassbender as prominent players.

As for the rest of Apocalypse, we know the character who goes by the same name will make an appearance, and that the film will explore the earliest human mutants. Evan Peters will likely be back as Quicksilver, and we may see Channing Tatum as Gambit. X-Men: Apocalypse opens on May 27, 2016.