Next year promises to be a very dark time for superheroes. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice will pit two caped heroes against one another, Captain America: Civil War will see former comrades turned into adversaries, and X-Men: Apocalypse threatens the end of the universe as we know it.  

Check out the apocalyptic first trailer for X-Men: Apocalypse below.

 

As the trailer indicates, the X-Men will find themselves up against the most powerful villain yet, Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac), who holds the key to their origins. From there things get, well, biblical. X-Men are turned against one another, and at some point this happens.

Yup, our first look at Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) with his iconic bald look. How does he lose his hair? And what's up with that scene with all the bodies flying at the screen? 

The official synopsis is certainly ominous:

"Following the critically acclaimed global smash hit X-Men: Days of Future Past, director Bryan Singer returns with X-Men: Apocalypse. Since the dawn of civilization, he was worshipped as a god. Apocalypse, the first and most powerful mutant from Marvel’s X-Men universe, amassed the powers of many other mutants, becoming immortal and invincible.

"Upon awakening after thousands of years, he is disillusioned with the world as he finds it and recruits a team of powerful mutants, including a disheartened Magneto (Michael Fassbender), to cleanse mankind and create a new world order, over which he will reign. As the fate of the Earth hangs in the balance, Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) with the help of Professor X (James McAvoy) must lead a team of young X-Men to stop their greatest nemesis and save mankind from complete destruction."

The young X-Men referenced above will reportedly include Beast (Nicolas Hoult), Jean Grey (Sophie Turner), Storm (Alexandra Shipp), Cyclops (Tye Sheridan), Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee), Havok (Lucas Till), Psylocke (Olivia Munn) and Quicksilver (Evan Peters), among others. We can see pretty much all of them in the trailer, albeit briefly. 

As in earlier installments, expect most of them to have smaller supporting roles, but it should be a lot of fun to see how director Bryan Singer juggles all the characters, working from a script by Simon Kinberg, especially since this will be the conclusion of the trilogy that began with X-Men: First Class and continued with X-Men: Days of Future Past.

In addition to the new trailer, here's a new motion poster featuring the movie's tag line.

 

 

Look for X-Men: Apocalypse when it opens in theaters on May 27, 2016.