Simon Kinberg has an interesting history with Marvel properties. He wrote X-Men: The Last Stand for Brett Ratner, dropping the ball on two comic book storylines - "The Dark Phoenix Saga" and "The Cure" - in a single movie.
He later penned X-Men: Days of Future Past for Bryan Singer and, while that movie wasn't exactly comic-accurate, it was well-received. However, he'd follow it with X-Men: Apocalypse and then stepped behind the camera to direct Dark Phoenix, the franchise's worst-reviewed movie.
Oh, and he was in charge of the disastrous reshoots which doomed Fantastic Four in 2015.
Does any of that make you think Kinberg should be dishing out advice to Marvel Studios for its planned X-Men reboot?
"If I had one piece of advice, honestly, it is a very cliché thing, but it just is true: The strength of the 'X-Men' is the characters," the writer recently told Slash Film. "As much as there's great storytelling and great plot and incredible action sequences and all of those things are going to be required of the movies, as they are in the comics, what sets, for me, the 'X-Men' apart is that they are the richest collection of characters in any comic book ever."
The irony here is that Kinberg repeatedly failed the franchise's characters, failing to do the likes of Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Mystique justice on screen. Magneto, for example, flipped back and forth between hero and villain, changing allegiances simply to suit whatever story was being told.
Regardless, he'd go on to say, "It's really about the characters that will get you the best actors. Those actors will bring those characters to life in a whole new way that honestly I cannot wait to see. I really am such a fan of what Marvel does and I'm obviously a massive, massive fan of the 'X-Men.'"
"Like the 'Star Wars' movies. I read two comics when I was growing up religiously. I read others, but the religious ones were for me, 'Batman' and 'X-Men.'"
Kinberg also revealed that Feige was the one tasked with calling him when X-Men: The Last Stand needed a new writer. While he describes the upcoming reboot as a "full circle" moment, something tells us the phone won't be ringing again now Marvel Studios is searching for a scribe to reinvent these characters.
Do you think Kinberg has earned the right to share his X-Men advice with Marvel Studios?