Simon Kinberg is a filmmaker who has been attached to the live-actionX-Menfilms as a writer ever sinceX-Men: The Last Stand. Kinberg made his directorial debut with the last movie in the franchise,Dark Phoenix. During a recent watch party forX-Men: Days of Future Past, Kinberg revealed on Twitter that he would love to continue to evolve and adapt the mutant characters, now that they are a part of the MCU.
“I’ve dedicated a lot of my life to Logan and Deadpool and theX-Menand would love to do a fresh take.”
After Sony sold the rights to the characters toDisney, the X-Men officially joined the MCU, although they have yet to make a formal debut in the cinematic universe. The tone of the MCU is a lot different from the tone set by the much olderX-Menmovie franchise, but Kinberg spoke about how much he appreciated the filmmaking approach of the Marvel Cinematic Universe despite the differences.
“I love Endgame, it’s one of my favorite comic book movies of all time. The MCU’s tone in general is a bit more playful than our movies. We went more operatic, dramatic.”
Unfortunately,Simon Kinbergand his credibility suffered a hit with the release ofDark Phoenix, which was widely panned upon release, with fans decrying the fact that this was the second time, afterThe Last Stand, that Kinberg had fumbled while delivering an adaptation of one of theX-Mencomics' most iconic storylines, the Dark Phoenix saga. The filmmaker offered some fresh insight into what had led to the muddled nature of the movie.
“Dark Phoenix was a hard movie because when I wrote it, it was meant to be a two-part movie. Having to change it into one andwork around a massive changewas challenging. Ultimately I was happy with the cut that we released.”
Back in the early 2000s, when theX-Menseries was in its heyday, the accepted idea was that superhero movies can only be major hits if they present a more grounded approach to the source material. That is why the X-Men debuted without their colorful costumes and eschewed the more far-fetched elements from the comics, like the cosmic Phoenix Force or Squirrel Girl.
By the time the MCU started with 2008’sIron Man, modern superhero movies had seen enough success to push for greater faithfulness to the source material, even if that involved space Vikings and star-spangled costumes.
While the legacy Kinberg and others created with their version ofX-Menwas no doubt instrumental in launching the MCU, showrunner Kevin Feige has mentioned in the past that they plan to do a complete revamp of the mutant franchise once they start showing up in MCU movies. So it is more than likely that Fiege will be looking to hire new people to reboot the story of the X-Men for future films.
