Apocalypse Co-Creator On What Worries Her (And Not) in X-Men: Apocalypse

During a recent interview in support of her upcoming IDW/Cartoon Network miniseries Super Secret Crisis War, veteran comics writer Louise Simonson was quizzed about one of her creations, X-Men villain Apocalypse, coming to the big screen in 2016. Saying that nobody has officially reached out to her yet (not surprising, considering that Len Wein and Chris Claremont didn't get any kind of contact ahead of The Wolverine and Fox didn't call John Byrne about X-Men: Days of Future Past), she said that in fact her biggest concern would be that they get the characterization right, since sometimes even the comics doesn't do that. She does think, though, that it's likely they can make the character look pretty good onscreen.

"I don't even have any thoughts at this point," said Simonson, who co-created the character with artist Jackson Guice in the 1980s, in an interview with Comic Book Resources. "I hope they give him the right motivation. That's my real concern. Everybody seems to have kind of missed that his motive actually is to try and make stronger, better, smarter people with powers because he feels like that's what has to happen if humanity is to survive. His heart's in the right place, bless his little heart. He just went about it a little wrong. His ideal is to put stressors on humanity to force humanity to evolve, essentially. I hope that they get that right. I would love to see a script. If I saw a script I think that physically they could do a great job with him. I'm sure it will be partly CGI. It would have to be. I'm curious to see what they're gonna do. Are they gonna do the Horsemen of the Apocalypse? With the big ol' ship and all that? I just don't know. All I've heard is that theoretically they're going to use Apocalypse. I haven't even gotten any official word, I've only read it in the paper." She added that while she hasn't read X-Men comics in a while, she does feel that his motivation "got lost in some of his appearances after I left. But I don't know if anything is being done with him now. I haven't followed the Marvel mutants in so long that I don't really know what's been done with him. So I could be paranoid for no reason at all." Simonson also said that while she would go with a very specific, iconic voice actor if she were in charge of casting the film, she knows there are probably a lot of great choices out there that casting directors would think of, and she wouldn't. She added that she's not particularly worried they'll get the casting right. "James Earl Jones' voice would be great but he's kinda old now," she said. "Apocalypse should have a big, rumbly voice. A lower register. Other than that, I don't know. There's so many talented people out there that could do such a great job. I'm sure the people who cast characters have a wider knowledge of who would produce a good effect than I do. I hope they choose somebody with a nice dramatic voice. But who knows? Apocalypse could speak in any accent or any language he wanted to because he's been around so long. Even dead ones. So he could have any voice they want. As long as it's not high and squeaky, which I know they won't do. I'm not worried about that." X-Men: Apocalypse will be in theaters May 27, 2016.