X-Men: Apocalypse Started Filming Without an Ending, Editor Reveals.
It’s hard to believe it’s been 10 years since X-Men: Apocalypse hit theaters. The movie has always been a bit controversial among Marvel fans, but a new interview with the film's editor, John Ottman, shows just how chaotic things were behind the scenes. Speaking on the Half the Picture podcast, Ottman dropped a huge bombshell: the crew literally started shooting without a finished third act.
"We have a film with no third act," Ottman admitted.
"It was a beat sheet. It was like — so-and-so attacks so-and-so, and they die. This person somehow escapes. And then this person dies, and they win. That’s it."
According to Ottman, there was a weird sense of complacency on set. Everyone just assumed everything would magically work out in the end, ignoring the major red flags in the script. Because of this, huge chunks of the movie—including the final battle—had to be figured out mid-shoot or completely pieced together in the editing room.
Trying to make sense of all the characters during that climax was a total headache for him. "It’s always like a Rubik’s Cube," Ottman explained. "It’s like an almost impossibility to figure out where each character is going to be to make logical sense of the whole situation."
Naturally, all this rush-job energy showed up in the reviews. The movie ended up with a pretty weak 47% on Rotten Tomatoes, which was a huge drop from Days of Future Past’s 90%. Box office-wise, it still pulled in $542.5 million against a $178 million budget—not terrible, but definitely a step down.
At the end of the day, Ottman doesn't think it was a disaster compared to later flops like Dark Phoenix or The New Mutants. "It’s not a terrible movie. It’s a good film," he insisted. His real frustration was just how unprepared the studio was for a legendary comic book villain like Apocalypse. Fans deserved a proper payoff, but the production was just too messy to give him the spotlight he actually deserved.
According to Ottman, there was a weird sense of complacency on set. Everyone just assumed everything would magically work out in the end, ignoring the major red flags in the script. Because of this, huge chunks of the movie—including the final battle—had to be figured out mid-shoot or completely pieced together in the editing room.
Trying to make sense of all the characters during that climax was a total headache for him. "It’s always like a Rubik’s Cube," Ottman explained. "It’s like an almost impossibility to figure out where each character is going to be to make logical sense of the whole situation."
Naturally, all this rush-job energy showed up in the reviews. The movie ended up with a pretty weak 47% on Rotten Tomatoes, which was a huge drop from Days of Future Past’s 90%. Box office-wise, it still pulled in $542.5 million against a $178 million budget—not terrible, but definitely a step down.
At the end of the day, Ottman doesn't think it was a disaster compared to later flops like Dark Phoenix or The New Mutants. "It’s not a terrible movie. It’s a good film," he insisted. His real frustration was just how unprepared the studio was for a legendary comic book villain like Apocalypse. Fans deserved a proper payoff, but the production was just too messy to give him the spotlight he actually deserved.
