Here’s some really interesting insights interwoven with quotes from comic book writer Mark Millar.  I like what they have to say about what’s happened in the X-Men universe, how Wolverine fits into all of it, and what the possibilities are for the future of X-Men in film.  

Following in Marvel Studio’s highly profitable phase one “shared universe,” 20th Century Fox began considering a similar approach to their forthcoming X-Men films. To help shape their interconnected mutant-populated movie world, the studio enlisted the help of Mark Millar – a fan-favorite comic book writer that has seen many of his own creations brought to the big screen.

In a conversation with Sci-Fi Now, Millar first clarifies his (lack of) influence on the movie and praises [director James] Mangold for relaunching the Wolverine film series (after an overwhelmingly negative reaction to Gavin Hood’s ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’):

“When I got this job they’d started shooting a couple of weeks but the screenplay to ‘The Wolverine’ is really, really terrific – I’m really, really delighted with it. Obviously the casting’s all been really good, the director’s brilliant.”

Attempting to put fears to rest, Millar claims that it makes sense to see the character jump back and forth between standalone movie adventures and X-Men team-ups:

“You know, I wrote the Wolverine comic twice – I did the Old Man Logan story and Wolverine: Enemy Of The State – and I don’t think it detracts having individual Wolverine adventures from the X-Men. He’s like a lone wolf character, he disappears and does his own thing sometimes and then he comes back and hangs out at the mansion, so it does feel quite natural to for him to be in these movies.”

Hugh Jackman as Wolverine

Millar is cognizant that too much Wolverine could undercut the impact of the character – and it seems as though Fox will not simply rely on Wolverine movies and X-Men team-ups in the next “phase” of their X-Men shared universe.

“You don’t want to have him out there all the time, because I think if you’ve got him in X-Men and Wolverine movies and they’re all running at the same time, it’s a little bit too much but as long as you’re smart with it and there’s a lot of other characters to explore as well. The X-Men universe is about the same size as the Marvel universe in terms of the number of titles it sustains at any one time, so there’s a ton of stuff to play with there and a lot of characters I’d like to explore there too.”

It’s unclear at this point how big a role Wolverine will play in ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’. However, as listeners of the Screen Rant Underground podcast already know, we’re expecting the character to play a large part in Singer’s time-traveling X-Men movie – especially if the director intends to rectify certain continuity errors created by Matthew Vaughn’s ‘X-Men: First Class’ prequel/reboot. Currently, First Class occupies a weird middle-ground where it revisits moments and faces from the original trilogy (such as the Hugh Jackman and Rebecca Romijn cameos) while at the same time contradicting previously established plot beats (example: Professor X acts as if he has never met Wolverine before in Singer’s 2000 movie). The disconnect was forgivable when First Class was considered a reboot but, with Fox’s plans to create a X-Men shared universe, it’s hard to imagine that Singer and Millar won’t also attempt to iron out the wrinkles – which could mean a significant role for Wolverine.

X-Men: First Class

It doesn’t need to be said that there are definitely enough characters in the X-Men and Marvel Universe to create films for new characters, such as ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’.  As long as the movies honor and respect the Marvel Universe, fans will continue to watch them.  Let’s hope Fox doesn’t overstep any boundaries in their goal to take over the throne of superhero movies.

via Mark Millar Talks Loner ‘Wolverine’; Wants to Explore New Characters in the ‘X-Men’ Universe.