Simon Kinberg talks the future of X-Men and disappointment in Fantastic Four

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Simon Kinberg must get a lot less sleep than the rest of us; the writer/producer has been involved in quite a few big projects in the past couple of years including X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST, CINDERELLA, CHAPPIE, THE MARTIAN, as well as the upcoming DEADPOOL, X-MEN: APOCALYPSE, and GAMBIT. Kinberg has played a part in the X-Men franchise for many years and spoke with THR about what the future will bring to the franchise.

We want to keep making them. Obviously, part of what we're doing now is stand-alone movies with new characters. So we have the Deadpool movie [Feb. 12], we're doing a Gambit movie [seeking a director]. We're doing another Wolverine. And then we have the mainline X-Men movies with Professor X, Magneto, Mystique, Beast that we started with First Class, Days of Future Past, Apocalypse. I would love to keep making movies with that cast. It's almost like the way the Star Wars movies now are. The Episodes are the mainline movies, and then you have the stand-alone movies. The X-Men flagship is [Michael] Fassbender, [James] McAvoy, Jen [Lawrence] and Nick Hoult, and then we have the stand-alone movies.

With the contracts for the above mentioned actors set to end with X-MEN: APOCALYPSE, Kinberg hopes to keep them around as they're obviously a big part of the X-Men franchise, but added that they'd have to reach a new deal as they only had a three-picture contract with the actors.

Another big superhero film which Simon Kinberg was involved with this year was FANTASTIC FOUR, and I don't believe I need to rehash what a complete cluster-trank that turned out to be. Kinberg responded to accusations that part of the reason the film suffered was because his attentions were spread too thin:

I was there every day on set of Fan Four, as I am on anything that I'm the writer and the producer of. Some movies work out and some don't. In my experience, there's not a direct corre­lation between the process and the product, meaning, I've been on some really hard movies, like Mr. & Mrs. Smith, where we shot a lot of reshoots that were very difficult days, as extensively reported — and in some places, accurately reported. So, I read stories about troubled movies and then I go see the movies and I'm like, "Wow, that movie turned out to be a great movie." There's a lot of crazy-talented writers, directors, actors who are difficult, and their films turn out great. And then there's some people who are lovely, wonderful human beings and the process is a joy, and the movie is flat. I don't subscribe to the idea that a happy process makes a happy product or an unhappy process makes a broken product. Also, the actual number of movies I'm working on is probably less than the average producer who has a deal at a studio.

As to what went wrong with FANTASTIC FOUR, Kinberg hasn't yet had time to analysis it, but he's obviously disappointed by the way the film turned out.

I haven't really done a full diagnosis. It was a hard movie to make, but I've made a lot of hard movies. I do think that there is a great Fantastic Four movie with that cast. But there's so many different elements that need to come together perfectly. It's like a collaboration between all these strangers. And if there's a few things that don't go right, it's hard to recover from. I went straight from that into Apocalypse. I haven't had a lot of time to decompress. I'm obviously disappointed with the way it turned out.

When asked whether Josh Trank's now famous tweet hurt the film's box-office, Kinberg didn't have an answer but again labeled it as a disappointment.

Honestly, I have no idea. I've had other movies not work before. For whatever reason, that movie not working became very public — and that was hard because you put a lot of time and effort and love into everything you do, and I really love a lot of people on that film and felt really close to the actors. Those are the guys whose faces are on the poster and are the most exposed. I hope we get to make more movies with them. But it was disappointing.

Next year Kinberg is involved with three films in the ever expanding X-Men film franchise, including DEADPOOL on February 12, 2016, X-MEN: APOCALYPSE on May 27, 2016, and GAMBIT on October 7, 2016.