Having already said that X-Men: Apocalypse will bring to an end the arc that began in 2011 with First Class, co-writer/producer Simon Kinberg now offers a little more insight into the future of the franchise.

"I will say that [X-Men: Apocalypse] is definitely the close of a trilogy for those First Class characters, which isn't to say we won’t see them in future movies, hopefully we will, but it's a completion of an arc for them," he told Collider. "I think that the friendship between Erik and Charles, which has always been so integral to the franchise, is something we're continuing to explore and hopefully deepen with Apocalypse. And the relationship between Beast and Mystique is a really interesting one that we didn't have a lot of time to explore in Days of Future Past, so we'll have an opportunity to do more of that in Apocalypse."

Kinberg had more to say about Mystique, specifically regarding the influence that Magneto and Professor X have had on her.

"Part of what's really interesting about Mystique's character is that she is, in some ways, the child of both Erik and Charles. She grew up with Charles and then she sort of became a woman with Erik, so her being the cross-pollination, if you will, of those two philosophies and those two men is something we can explore in the movie too."

The upcoming X-Men film sees the team undergo another time jump, this time from the '70s-set Days of Future Past to the 1980s.

"We're having a lot of fun with the idea of the 80s," Kinberg said. "It's a decade that [director] Bryan [Singer] and I both grew up in and so the music, the style, the aesthetic, the legacy of '80s movies is something we're really having fun with."

Just because Apocalypse will serve as the close of the First Class trilogy doesn't mean the X-Men from the original trilogy can't come back -- even if they might look a little different. Kinberg previously stated that if X-vets like Cyclops, Storm and Jean Grey were to pop up in Apocalypse, they'd have to be recast to line up with the earlier time period.

In an interview with Yahoo Movies, Cyclops actor James Marsden has named his ideal successor: his Best of Me co-star Luke Bracey. "Yeah, that'd be great [if Luke Bracey took over as Cyclops]," the actor said. "Then he could just eventually take over being me. Then I would never get another role as long as I live!"

However, don't take Marsden's playful answer as confirmation that he’s hanging up his visor.

"Who knows what's happening [with X-Men: Apocalypse]? It's all just speculation at this point," he said. "If [recasting] does happen, it was because of a timeline issue. I know so little about that whole world."

X-Men: Apocalypse arrives May 27, 2016.