Dazzler Could Show Up in X-Men: Apocalypse, Says Simon Kinberg

In today's Entertainment Weekly interview confirming Rose Byrne as Moira MacTaggert in X-Men: Apocalypse, executive producer Simon Kinberg talked a bit about his enthusiasm for the '80s setting of the film...and indicated that, yes, iconic '80s mutant Dazzler could show up.

"That's the era that I grew up in," Kinberg told EW. "The music, the fashion, the videogames: We really want to integrate all of that in the movie, and have it infuse the movie with a different vibe."

When the site asked him specifically about Dazzler, Kinberg laughed, "Could happen. We're certainly looking at mutants that would fit into the period."

Dazzler first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #130 in February 1980. She was commissioned by Casablanca Records in the late '70s to be a cross-promotion in the mold of KISS, who had starred in two successful comic book tie-in super-specials by that point. Marvel Comics would develop a singing superhero, while Casablanca would produce a singer who could perform while in character and wardrobe. Marvel's then-Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter wrote a treatment for a feature film based on the character.

She never reached the desired level of popularity to get a movie -- and of course, it probably didn't help that by 1980 her "disco queen" persona wasn't quite as hip as it might have been a few years earlier -- but she's been a regular member of the X-Men universe ever since, with the occasional musical genre-switch and a much-publicized move toward a darker and edgier look in 2014.