Psylocke is one of the most hotly anticipated new characters joining X-Men: Apocalypse. Whether it's because of her history in the comics or because the actor playing her is Olivia Munn, it doesn't matter — either way, fans cannot wait to watch Psylocke take her place as one of Apocalypse's Four Horsemen on the big screen. The character's history in the comics is complicated — although Psylocke's powers in X-Men Apocalypse are varied, they've changed over the years, and her story isn't super well known. Yet when you see her on-screen, you won't be able to take your eyes off her.
Psylocke has all kinds of powers in the comics. Since her first appearance in 1976, the hero also known as Elizabeth "Betsy" Braddock has had a quite a few mutant powers at her disposal. She was once telepathic, with the ability to predict the future. Over the years, she had the power to "travel via shadows," as Marvel describes it, to become invisible and to create force fields and move things with her mind. But her best known power is that she can create a telekinetic katana (aka the purple sword Psylocke is seen wielding in the trailer for Apocalypse). This power also comes with untold super strength and telekinetic powers to use in battle.
Some spoilers ahead! In the movie, Psylocke is not psychic and she doesn't appear to have the power of telepathy. Instead, she gets her power from the purple katana that shoots out of one of her hands — oh, and she's also an expert swordsman, as proof by the other katana she keeps handy. However, Munn has said that she tried to play into the idea that Psylocke is telepathic, but just chooses to hide that power throughout Apocalypse. It's something she said featured heavily into the choreography of her action sequences. "Some of my fight scenes that I have, I'm able to go after them quickly because I'm already assessing what they're going to do, but they don't know that I have that ability," she explained in an interview with Collider .
Psylocke does emerge from Apocalypse having proved herself in battle — one particularly fun sequence finds her going head-to-head against Beast. In fact, she does little else than fight, something Munn says she was warned about going into the project. In an interview with American Way , Munn said that she didn't care too much about her lack of dialogue in the film as long as she got some good fight sequences, saying, "The fight scene could be her monologue."
There are a lot of questions about Psylocke that are left unanswered at the end of the film — the extent of her powers is just one of them. But, who knows, maybe we'll get to learn more about Psylocke's powers later down the line.
Images: 20th Century Fox; Giphy (2)
