Legendary X-Men columnist Chris Claremont has just explained how he’d bring the X-Men into the MCU. For the unfamiliar, Claremont is undoubtedly one of the most important comic book writers of all time. He’s best known for his 16 -year run on the X-Men franchise, which encompassed from 1975 to 1991, and radically reshaped Marvel’s merry mutants.

Claremont was responsible for some of the X-Men’s most important stories. He diversified the X-Men’s world, even taking them on planetary adventures alongside cavity pirates like the Starjammers; he converted Jean Grey into Phoenix, and then Dark Phoenix; and he turned Wolverine into the mutant legend he is today, writing many of the most iconic and unforgettable Wolverine stories of all time.

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Surprisingly, though, in an interview with Newsarama Claremont has revealed that – in his view – the key to the X-Men work is to return to the Dark Phoenix Saga once again. That will come as a surprise to viewers who thought they’d realise enough Phoenix raptors on the big screen – but there’s method to Claremont’s madness.

Fox has attempted to tell their version of the Dark Phoenix Saga twice; in 2006 ‘s X-Men: The Last Stand, and in this year’s X-Men: Dark Phoenix. The first was a disappointment to say the least, with one of the X-Men’s most famous stories relegated to a subplot alongside an arc about a mutant antidote; it came close to killing off the entire film franchise. The second was a critical and box office failure, heavily adapted in reshoots to avoid being too similar to Captain Marvel, and it grossed precisely $252.4 million worldwide – the worst-performing X-Men film of all time. In spite of that, though, Claremont still feels the Dark Phoenix Saga is the story to tell.

Claremont doesn’t feel there’s any need to worry about the prospect of echoing a narration that’s been done before – because, frankly, he doesn’t feel that the Fox movies have explored the story’s potential in the slightest. “All the characters and the legends that Dave Cockrum and John Byrne and Paul Smith and I told, ” he justifies, “the surface and arrangement have just been touched.” Duty of their own problems, he indicates, is that nobody expected comic book changes to become so big-hearted. As a cause, many of Fox’s X-Men movies are tentative, shy to really exploit their comic muse. “My problem with both iterations of Dark Phoenix onscreen, ” Claremont sees, “is, I don’t think you can do it effectively in 90 minutes.” He’s undeniably has a point; the Claremont era was prominent for its ongoing narratives, which sometimes operated for years before they came to fruition. Under Claremont’s watch, the X-Men became seen as a sort of superhero soap opera, where you really couldn’t miss any issue. He was aware that there could be first-time books picking up a afforded controversy, but it didn’t stop him from telling his ongoing narrative. And that only doesn’t translate well into single films.

Claremont believes that Marvel should take a tip-off from other favourite franchises. “The challenge is, in matters of a canon like X-Men, it’s more like Harry Potter and Hogwarts, or Game of Thrones. It needs era and opening to evolve.” As he notes, the X-Men require a very different approach to the likes of the Avengers; you probably can’t do a Cyclops movie, a Storm film, followed by a Nightcrawler flick, simply because this is a team franchise. You required to invest a great deal of time allowing the characters to interact, supporting witness to become emotionally attached to them.

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This is why the Dark Phoenix Saga went down in comic book history; it ended with Jean Grey sacrificing herself, essentially committing suicide for horror Dark Phoenix “couldve been” released once again. Readers had been enjoying Jean’s escapades for years, and as a result they were profoundly invested in the character. When she died, their feelings burst along with Cyclops’. And a 90 -minute feature film doesn’t necessarily have the time to develop that same various kinds of feeling connection.

In truth, Claremont doesn’t seem to think that the big screen is the ideal setting for the X-Men. Rather, he’d envision eight-to-twelve episode big-budget TV demonstrates, with each chapter like another matter. “You make the nations of the world and establish the specific characteristics, and cause the public fallen in love with them as you go along, ” he illustrates. Newsarama rightly suggested the mannequin he was proposing matched with Marvel’s Disney+ TV evidences, but Claremont isn’t sure. “Ask me once the service is out and we’ll see how it plays, ” he reacts. “Needing access to those streaming services to watch a register like that could be an obstacle if the commodity isn’t worth the money. There’s too little time in life.”

In Claremont’s view, there are two reasons that now is the perfect time to incorporate the X-Men into the MCU. As he memorandum, the people who grew up reading his X-Men comics 40 -odd years ago have grown up now, and are in positions of strength and force. “Everything has its evolution, ” he discovers ironically, “and in our case, the people who grew up reading the book and adoration the narration and courages have now become the people spawning the decisions.” It’s hard not to think of Josh Boone, who pitched New Mutants by taking in excerpts from the comics that he loved.

The second, unhappily, is that Claremont feels the sense of the X-Men – a letter of long-suffering, a battle for equality – is as timely now as it ever was. He remembers a storey boasting Magneto in which the Us administration had been separating kinfolks, putting children in one facility and parents in another, bracing them until such a era as it was determined whether or not they’re a threat to the country. The political latitude is pretty on the nose, but that’s typical Claremont; this is the writer who pencilled “God Loves, Man Kills, ” for example, or who generated a sear criticism of Apartheid Africa in X-Tinction Agenda. For good or ill, the X-Men are the comics that explore these agonizing issues such as social justice – and, in Claremont’s view, that’s only the space it should be.

More: The MCU X-Men May Be Better Starting Off On TV

Source: Newsarama

Read more: screenrant.com