11 X-Men: Apocalypse Easter eggs – from mutant cameos to Weapon 

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is probably the most complicated and intricate superhero franchise thanks to its insane superpowered soap-opera mythology and the multiple timelines that have graced its 16-year-old franchise.

Which means there were a lot of secrets and references for director Bryan Singer to sneak into his fourth film in the series,

. Check out these juicy Easter eggs you might have missed.

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Apocalypse has a cult of followers surviving into the 21st century in both the comics and the new film.

\'s Ashir(?) En Sabah Nur were apparently ordinary humans who remembered the legends of the self-professed god.

In the comics, the equivalent group is called Clan Akkaba – named for Apocalypse\'s ancient Egyptian birthplace. They claim to be the descendants of the villain, possessing some of his powers and looking after his interests while their master sleeps.

The backstory of Apocalypse has a tendency to be a bit on the contradictory side, but certain stories have portrayed him as needing to intermittently take on a new body, ousting the original owner so that he can survive – as Cyclops learnt to his cost.

As we had guessed from the trailer, this was a thread picked up by the film – first in the intro, when Oscar Isaac\'s healing-factor-possessing mutant becomes old man Apocalypse\'s latest home, and later when he tries the same trick with James McAvoy\'s Charles Xavier.

villain might put in an appearance, and so he did – albeit in a blink-and-you\'ll-miss-it form.

The super-obese Fred Dukes is seen stretchered out of the mutant fight club moments before Nightcrawler is introduced as Angel\'s next opponent.

featured a mutant ne\'er-do-well that bore more than a passing resemblance to

\'s Richard O\'Brien. That was Caliban – a mutant with a long-established connection to the titular villain.

In the comics, Caliban was one of the Morlocks – mutants living underneath New York City – with the ability to detect others of his kind. He was transformed into a super-strong and simple-minded monster in a later incarnation of Apocalypse\'s four horsemen.

– a movie which director Singer basically wrote out of existence in

When Wolverine makes his cameo in the Weapon X base, he breaks out of his cage wearing a helmet, wires, some shorts and not much else.

That modish look is based on the one he sported during the \'Weapon X\' origin story printed in

The whole trip to William Stryker\'s Weapon X facility in

felt like a bit of an unnecessary aside, but it did give us one significant character moment between Sophie Turner\'s Jean Grey and Hugh Jackman\'s Wolverine.

Though Jean is Cyclops\'s long-term girlfriend and later wife, there has been a long-running romantic connection between her and Wolverine – which was fuel for the Wolverine-Cyclops rivalry.

Of course, this particular scene does bring home some of the age-difference ickiness, but we\'ll do our best to ignore that.

The film leaves us with a new team of X-Men – a kind of mash-up of the original team (Jean Grey, Cyclops, Beast, Professor X) with some other longstanding allies (Storm, Quicksilver, Mystique, Nightcrawler).

Cyclops, Mystique and Nightcrawler\'s new costumes are particularly reminiscent of their classic looks, including Scott\'s shoulder strap, the purpose of which still remains a mystery to us.

Charles Xavier knows how to train a new generation of X-Men – put them in potentially mortal danger in his aptly named \'Danger Room\'.

Sometimes it\'s portrayed as a holodeck-style simulation, but this is the \'80s so we\'re back with the classic deadly duelling robots – in this case repurposed Sentinels.

It\'s time we addressed the massive flaming bird in the room. "All is revealed," sighs Apocalypse moments before Jean Grey, blazing with the power of the legendary Phoenix, terminates the villain.

Jean\'s backstory is inextricably linked to the Phoenix, a cosmic entity that alternately attempts to save mutantkind or kill everyone depending on the day of the week – or, if we\'re going by the much-loathed

There\'s no way we\'ve seen the last of the firebird, and that will surely mean trouble for the X-Men.

The obligatory post-credits scene shows one of the governmental types retrieving samples of Wolverine\'s blood and putting them in a suitcase marked Weapon X and Essex Corps.

characters making an appearance somewhere in the future of the franchise. The first is X-23 – aka Laura Kinney – a female clone of Wolverine who was bred as an assassin before breaking her programming and joining the X-Men. She also has retractable claws in her feet – who could say no to that?

The other is Nathaniel Essex, better known as Mister Sinister (who you might remember from the \'90s cartoon). The mad, immortal, Victorian geneticist with an unhealthy obsession with Jean and Cyclops\'s DNA traditionally has links to Apocalypse, though we\'re not sure how that could play out with Isaac\'s villain going from buried to dead in short order. Sinister is best known as a cloner – and has a past with Weapon X – so could certainly be involved in the creation of a cinematic X-23.

This teaser could either play out in another 

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