X-Men: Simon Kinberg on Possibility of Directing Supernova

"Human and personal stakes always trump global stakes."

By Alex Osborn

X-Men writer and producer Simon Kinberg addressed some of the rumors surrounding the next entry in Fox's mutant-minded film franchise, saying if he were to helm the project, he would probably take a "very collaborative" approach.

In interview with ComingSoon.net, Kinberg was asked about the recent report that the next X-men movie may serve as his directorial debut, reaffirming that no official announcement has been made, but that they're "prepping the film" and "excited to get back into telling the story of the mainland X-Men."

In the event he did get to direct the movie, which is rumored to be titled X-Men: Supernova and center around Dark Phoenix, he said, "my directorial style would probably be very similar to my writing and producing style, which is very collaborative."

Kinberg was also asked about X-Men: Apocalypse and what lessons he learned from the film, which was't received particularly well by critics when it released last year. He said that when he wrote the movie, he intended it to be about "a family splitting apart and coming back together," and while that aspect made it into the Apocalypse to some degree, he believes it got "a little buried, and the movie on the surface became about a guy who wanted to destroy the world."

Instead of being about "human stakes," the film "became more about global stakes," Kinberg explained, saying the lesson he learned from Apocalypse is "that human and personal stakes always trump global stakes." He cited Bryan Singer's first X-Men film as a good example of how the two should be balanced, noting that while Magento had world-sized ambitions, the movie was truly about saving Rogue.

In the case of Apocalypse, Kinberg suspects they "got a little enamored in the possibility of seeing the world get destroyed and do some things in terms of scale and scope that we haven't done in the X-Men movies" that some of the more personal and human elements got lost.

Several months after the release of Apocalypse, it was reported that the X-Men film series "will be reconfigured," with Kinberg working on a new script. According to Jean Grey actress Sophie Turner, the next X-Men movie will begin filming soon.

Alex Osborn is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter and subscribe to his YouTube channel.

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