Exclusive: Simon Kinberg On His ‘Star Wars’ Movie And The Future Of The ‘X-Men’ Universe [TCA 2016]
Simon Kinbergwas on a Television Critics Association panel this morning for the new ABC seriesDesignated Survivor, in whichKiefer Sutherlandplays a cabinet member named President after a terrorist attack at the State of the Union address. After the panel, I caught up with Kinberg to ask about his mysteriousStar Warsmovie andX-Menuniverse projects.
First I asked Kinberg if doing aStar Warsanthology movie perhaps gave him more freedom than the Saga episodes that must continue the story along a forward path. “I love them all, to be honest,” Kinberg said. “I also work in the animated show,Star Wars Rebels, so I think it’s not necessarily freedom narratively but maybe a little more freedom tonally, because those anthology movies can have a different tone than the mainline episodes. Honestly, I’m involved in one capacity or another in almost everything over there and I love it all.”
We have yet to see how different in toneRogue Oneends up being, and it’s too early for Kinberg to know specifically about his film as he is just beginning to write it. Kinberg also discussed his upcomingX-Menprojects includingDeadpool 2,Gambit, andLegion.
Kinberg producedDeadpooland so he will be involved with the sequel too. Expect the Merc with the Mouth to comment on sequels themselves. “I thinkDeadpool 2will comment on anything that’s happening in movies today especially in superhero movies,” Kinberg said. “The sort of glut or saturation of these movies and the proliferation of sequels is definitely something we’ll play around with.”
Since Deadpool himself announced Cable would be in the sequel, casting rumors suggestedStephen Langwould play him. Now it seems work on theAvatarsequels will prevent him from being available. Kinberg said they have not cast the part.
“I’ve seen rumors from about everybody fromArnold Schwarzeneggerto I can’t even remember,” Kinberg said. We haven’t cast him is the truth."
Another X-Men spinoff,Gambit, also faces development delays.Channing Tatumis attached to play the title character and Kinberg said the development has been normal.
“I think the truth is when you have these movies that need a very special and unique tone, it takes a little while to find that tone,” Kinberg said. “Deadpoolfeels like it exploded out of nowhere but it was a ten-year development process on that movie. I think it was honed over those ten years. I hope thatGambitdoesn’t take ten years but it takes a little honing to get that tone and that voice exactly right. The character has such a specific voice in the comic in the same way thatDeadpoolhas a specific voice in the comic, that we want to verify that we capture that voice on the page. Really it’s just about getting a screenplay that is worthy of that character and I think we’re really close right now.”
Even with all these films in development, Kinberg is still attached to the mainX-Menfilm series. He is just thinking about what a follow-up toX-Men: Apocalypsewill be. “I’m a lifer for theX-Menmovies,” Kinberg said. “I’m just working now, without giving anything away, I’m figuring out what the next of the mainlineX-Menmovies is going to be.”
Kinberg is also working withNoah Hawleyon FX’sLegionseries, set in theX-Menuniverse. Kinberg said theFargoproducer pitched it as a superheroBreaking Bad. “ActuallyLegioncame out of a conversation that Noah and I had when I was in Moscow for the release ofDays of Future Past,” Kinberg said. “Noah was somebody I really admired and we were talking about doingX-MenTV shows. We had a bunch of different ideas.Legionwasn’t one of them and Noah said to me, ‘I want to doBreaking Badin the superhero world. I want to actually tell the story about the origin of essentially a villain.’ It evolved from there and becameLegion.”
Both Hawley and Kinberg hopeLegionallows them to spend years developing their antihero. “InLegion, David, the main character, we’re talking a lot about how do we evolve him over multiple episodes, multiple seasons. Thinking years down the line ideally for his character in the same way that we do for Tom Kirkman (Sutherland) in this.”
