Is Apocalypse the villain in 'X-men: Days of Future Past'?

I've learned to trust my homie Brendon Connelly and his many hunches. He had a chance to sit down with Bryan Singer just as Jack the Giant Slayer is set to make its U.K. debut. Of course the conversation turned to X-men: Days of Future Past, and Singer was asked about who the villain might be. Specifically, whether any of the rumors about En Sabah-Nur, aka Apocalypse, could be the bad guy of the time travel story. But first, Singer addressed why he was interested in returning to the X-men now, and what the film is about...

Singer: "The movie is about destiny. What is your fate? What were you supposed to do, what should you have done when you were younger? What didn’t you do that would have made for a better future? And what if you could go back and change that.

I think I’ve got the time travel – I don’t really want to call it time travel, but for want of a better word, time travel figured out. I pitched it to James Cameron and he signed off on it."

So there's confirmation of that meeting with Cameron we heard about before. Must be some complicated time travel dynamics he's playing with. To be fair, it's a little wonky in the Days of Future Past comic, as well.

But it's when Singer is asked about Apocalypse that things get really interesting. Here's the whole exchange as described by Brendon over at Bleeding Cool...

On hearing the name Apocalypse, Singer’s face changed immediately but there was no point being timid. Might as well plough ahead with the question. Would he even consider using Apocalypse in the movies? How about in Days of Future Past?
His nervous answer:

I can’t tell you…

That was most interesting. So I leapt forward and asked if realizing the character of Apocalypse would require performance capture.
And now Singer looked even more nervous.

This is how it gets started, when somebody starts piecing the little bits together…

Oh my.  While that's hardly a confirmation, it does sound like Singer was afraid of the cat being let out of the bag. For those who don't know, Apocalypse is credited as being the very first mutant. He is an immortal, granted with vast Celestial power, who believes in the code of survival of the fittest. His beliefs have made him a frequent enemy of the X-men in the past, present, and far-flung future, but also occasionally he's been their ally. Recently, he's been reborn in the body of a child and enrolled in the X-men's school where they are trying to teach him to be a hero rather than a monster.
It's that last part that that seems to fit with what Singer was saying about destiny. I don't know about you, but I'm excited at the prospect. And he would almost certainly have to be a CG-creation, which has been teased in the past.

Apocalypse doesn't have anything to do with the original story, so this would be quite the deviation from the comic. I'm thinking Singer will clam up now and stop revealing so much on his Twitter page, and probably won't do quite as many interviews on the subject.  X-men: Days of Future Past arrives on July 17th 2014. Until then, you might want to check out the Age of Apocalypse and X-Cutioner's Song (my personal favorite crossover ever) comics for some of the best Apocalypse stories.