Longtime X-Men fans have been waiting for any solid information on their upcoming MCU debut, directed by Thunderbolts* director Jake Schreier. So far, he’s remained pretty tight-lipped about his take on Marvel’s mutants. But thanks to an interview with Collider, we have some idea of which X-Men comics he’s pulling from for inspiration. And, not surprisingly, he’s citing the seminal Uncanny X-Men run of writer Chris Claremont as his primary source of inspiration. Claremont defined the team in their most popular era, writing the characters for 16 years, from 1975 to 1991. Here’s what Jake Schreier had to say, after announcing Sonny Lee Sung Jin (Beef) and Joanna Calo (The Bear) as the latest X-Men screenplay writers.
They have come in and are working on a draft right now, which is really, really exciting to be able to put that group of people together again. I also think just having the time to kind of sit back, and I’ve just been digging into so many of the old comics and the entire Claremont run, and just going through stuff and really trying to think about what can we do well that feels new and feels different, and that hasn’t been done well before? Obviously, there’s such an incredible cinematic tradition of these comics, but what can we do? And how can we put our own spin on what that is?
“Claremont run” signifies a very long time in comic book terms. So it may seem like it’s hard to pinpoint which characters will make up the roster. But despite writing Uncanny X-Men for so long, most of Claremont’s era focused on a tight-knit group of characters. During the book’s sales peak, from 1975-1987, the main characters were Cyclops, Phoenix, Wolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Kitty Pryde, and Rogue. Later additions were Havok, Dazzler, and Longshot. However, their tenures were relatively brief, only sticking around for a couple of years.
The other two most significant Claremont additions toward the end of his tenure are Psylocke and Gambit. Claremont wrote the team’s rebirth in 1991’s X-Men #1, which saw the return of team founders Angel, Iceman, and Beast. But he left the series after issue three, so they weren’t prominent characters during his era. Of course, Professor Charles Xavier led the team for much of this era as well. So if we were to venture a guess as to who makes the cut? Then we’d say look at which heroes Claremont had the strongest affinity for during this time. So expect some of the X-Men’s most iconic heroes when they arrive in the MCU.