Polygon spoke to writer, director, and producer Simon Kinberg about his world-building career, as the second season of Invasion arrives on Apple TV+, and also discussed his work on the standalone Boba Fett movie comparing it’s tone to Marvel’s Logan.
The X-Men franchise only became more driven by science fiction as you got more involved. Was the studio always on board?
The gateway was Days of Future Past because even though there isn’t high science fiction, like apocalypse or aliens, time travel is as big a science fiction trope. It sort of opened up what we could do because even though it wasn’t technically the multiverse thing that, ultimately, I think in some ways spawned it, it was outside the bounds of linear storytelling on Earth. It was other dimensions. There wasn’t a lot of pushback from the studio. Although paying all those actors, I don’t think they were wild about that, but it was a successful film and one I’m very proud of.
With Apocalypse, we entered a much more science fiction tone. Bryan was directing the film, as he had so many of them, and it was new terrain for him. He would talk about being able to direct, like, a real, pure science fiction movie. Not space opera, but science fiction.
It’s interesting because around that same time, while I was working in the X-Men universe, I started working in the Star Wars universe.
You didn’t wind up writing a Star Wars movie, but it seems like you were heavily involved with shaping this new era — what was your actual role?
Very early on, like, at the inception of Kathy Kennedy coming aboard to join George Lucas in what would be the new Lucasfilm and the new Star Wars movies, they hired me, Lawrence Kasdan [screenwriter of Empire Strikes Back], and Michael Arndt [Toy Story 3, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire] as kind of mini writers room. We went up to Skywalker Ranch and spent a couple of weeks up there talking about what the potential new movies could be. And so initially, I think the ask was: Just come up and break ideas and stories and brainstorm with two other people. Then Michael, Larry, and I each talked about writing a different Star Wars movie. Michael wrote J.J.’s first Star Wars movie, then Larry Kasdan rewrote it. Larry wrote the Han Solo movie, and I was gonna write a different one.
What were you going to write?
I was gonna write the Boba Fett movie.
I had heard that the early Boba Fett pitch was a play to steer Star Wars more toward hard sci-fi, which would make sense for you.
I mean, it’s all pretty sci-fi, but I think “hard” is the right word. Tonally like Logan. On the edge of R-rated, though I don’t think you’d have a Star Wars movie that could be R-rated.
But at any rate, I think over time, my role morphed as a friend of the court. And so it ranged from being a consultant on the movies, give thoughts, notes, sometimes actual pages for scripts, and obviously co-creating Star Wars Rebels and really staying with that show that I loved. Part of what was so exciting about Rebels was that we were getting to do something that those movies I just mentioned didn’t entirely do, which is create a brand-new set of characters.
And look at them now!
Now they’ve come to actual life.
Read the interview in full at the link below.
