Bryan Singer, Kodi Smit-McPhee and James McAvoy talk X-MEN: APOCALYPSE. Which characters are on “the verge of death?”

X-MEN: APOCALYPSE director Bryan Singer and cast members James McAvoy (Professor Xavier) and Kodi Smit-McPhee (Nightcrawler) spoke with Yahoo! Movies UK about making the film and connectng with their characters on an emotional level.

“There’s a crossover between ‘X-Men’ and ‘Game Of Thrones’,” Singer said, when comparing the HBO show with his film and explaining where the characters are at in this phase of their life. “They’re both about a younger generation finding their powers, finding out who they are, and what their place in the world is. I like how the show’s about different groups of people moving towards a common goal. They don’t even know if that’s the right goal, who wants to sit on that uncomfortable throne? I don’t! Everyone in King’s Landing is miserable. But for some reason they want that power.”

On “concluding” the character story arcs which began with FIRST CLASS and continued through DAYS OF FUTURE PAST, James McAvoy said that the “emotional” connection is what sets the X-Men apart from traditional superhero fare.

“It’s the end of three stories. Raven is on the verge of death,” he revealed about the film’s high stakes and how he portrays that emotion on screen. “For me [when performing a scene] , I see Jennifer [Lawrence] on the verge of death. And I’ve known Jennifer and Raven for five years now, and I love them both. Peter [Maximoff] is on the verge of torture and death, and I feel that too. Erik and Michael, they’re on the edge of this pivotal moment in their life, and I feel all this. I’ve got a good enough imagination that I can place my friends and these characters I’ve shared five years with in these situations, and it’s f***ing horrible.

What sets ‘X-Men’ apart for me is that it is fun, it is a glib, flippant and throwaway popcorn movie sometimes, but the relationships are so strong it creates this emotional space in which big things are felt. It wasn’t just the weight of the world I was feeling [when acting out a scene]. It was the death of the world.”

On Nightcrawler’s new introduction to the world of the X-Men, Singer says “We discover Nightcrawler in East Berlin, where he has to queue to get a loaf of bread. Through happenstance, merely because Raven needs him as a kind of taxi service because he can move really fast, he finds himself in America, in the X-Mansion, which to him is a paradise.”

“I couldn’t keep up with my excitement, it hits you so fast,” Smit-McPhee said about working on the film set. “I’m trying to be in professional mode, but looking around Xavier’s School made me realise what I’m doing.”

Read much more at Yahoo! Movies UK.