Having directed the first two films, X-Men (2000) and X2 (2003), and the last two, Days of Future Past (2014) and now Apocalypse. So what keeps bringing him back to this world? "I think it's the history," he says. "It's the history and the cast. I have a history with these characters. So even when another filmmaker like Matthew Vaughn made a movie, I had to be part of it, I had to produce it. So I get drawn back in. I try to get out because I have other ideas for other movies and things, but I really love this universe. I love these characters and I love these actors. We really had a great time."

Bryan Singer at the X-Men premiere

Singer particularly enjoyed Apocalypse because it deals with the origins of mutants, something that hadn't been addressed before. "It's about the origin of gods and religion," he says. "I read Chariots of the Gods when I was a kid, and I was fascinated with religion and cults and things like that. So that stuff made this so appealing to do. Whenever someone tries to view themselves as higher than everyone else, and more than everyone else, it's a recipe for problems, conflict, disaster, wars, death and destruction!"

There are a lot of digital effects in the movie, but Singer was determined to make things as real as possible, including the make-up and costume for the title character Apocalypse, played by Oscar Isaac. "Whenever I can go physical I try to. It gives the actors something to play with. It makes it real for the actor and it makes it real for the people who are playing against the actor than when they're wearing a green suit with dots on it."

He has several projects in the works, including a remake of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, but clearly won't rule out returning to the X-Men. "When we made the first movie, there was no template for it," Singer says. "Comic book movies had died, there was no concept of one as anything but camp. But I thought I could see this universe through Wolverine's eyes, because he kind of doesn't buy it. Through him I can make a film that happens to be based on a comic book, but it's not just genre. It's a film not so different from Usual Suspects or Apt Pupil."

Watch the trailer for X-Men Apocalypse: