Concept art for one of the worst-received villains in 20th Century Fox’s X-Men franchise has been revealed, offering a more comic-accurate look.

The titular villain from X-Men: Apocalypse is one of the worst-received in the franchise, yet some concept art from the film’s production offers a more comic-accurate version. Apocalypse, or En Sabah Nur, is one of the villains of the prequel X-Men films. Played by Oscar Isaac in X-Men: Apocalypse, the character was considered one of the worst X-Men antagonists next to X-Men Origins: Wolverine‘s Deadpool, with both considered among the lower-ranked X-Men films despite promising casts.

One of the biggest issues with 2016’s Apocalypse, his comic accuracy, has been resolved in concept art released by jsmarantz on Instagram. The concept artist and longtime X-Men fan explains how grateful he was to design the character considering Apocalypse was one of his favorite X-Men villains. With the Marvel movies releasing in 2024 promising a return to the MCU for mutants, hopefully, the franchise can take a page from Marantz’s book and design future X-Men villains with more comic accuracy than was presented in Fox’s iteration.

Thanos Already Proved The Perfect Way To Present Apocalypse

Concerning Apocalypse’s potential portrayal in the MCU, the character of Thanos already proved the best way to translate En Sabah Nur to the big screen. In X-Men: Apocalypse, and even the concept art above, the character is depicted as simply too small. In Marvel Comics, Apocalypse was a hulking figure who instilled fear in the hearts of those he faced.

The design in X-Men: Apocalypse did not portray this, and while the concept art above is better, it is still admittedly too small for a villain of En Sabah Nur’s physical and metaphorical stature. With Josh Brolin’s motion capture version of Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War, though, the character was a physically intimidating presence. This same technique could be reused for Apocalypse should the character be used in the MCU’s eventual X-Men movie, rectifying the mistakes of X-Men: Apocalypse.