With ‘Logan‘ making X-23 a household name to the non-comic and animated series crowd, creator Craig Kyle has some enthusiastic words about the future of the character. However, while he has high hopes for where she’ll be going on the big screen he also shared his one regret of how her story played out in the comics. The concept for Laura came about in 2003’s animated series ‘X-Men: Evolution’ when a Kids WB Executive wanted to know if there was a way to make Wolverine younger as many of the mutants were at that time.
While Kyle said he couldn’t de-age Wolverine, the idea for a younger, female clone of the character came about. After talking to Marvel editor-in-chief at the time Joe Quesada, X-23 was born. She was so popular on the television series that Kyle was teamed with writer Chris Yost and artist Billy Tan to bring her into the comics. From that moment both “Innocence Lost” and “Target X” came about. Things were going well until the “NYX” series which had her working as an underage prostitute for a time.
This story was not at all where Kyle had wanted the character to go and from that moment her sexuality played an on and off again part in her development. It is also one of the story arcs which most fans have been most critical of. Kyle explains his idea for the character:
“I want a hero that my daughter, when she’s old enough to see heads be turned into bologna slices, can get behind of and proud of an excited by.”
With Dafne Keen’s take on the character he hopes that this type of a character can still happen, at least cinematically if not on page. So far, James Mangold has taken a lot of insight from Crag Kyle having clearly been inspired by the two runs mentioned above. Not only that but according to Kyle, Mangold “had a lot of questions about her. He wanted to know the reasons behind the claw placement. And he actually ended up using that. Patrick Stewart stops Logan in the car and tries to explain the fact that she has her claws that way — and uses the pride of lions as an example. That was both my pitch at lunchtime and in an email later.”
When asked about the cinematic take on his creation, Kyle states:
“I am so grateful for how he brought her to screen. He has a chance to do what I couldn’t. My pitch to Joe [Quesada] when he said he wanted to put her in a [comic book] title was, “Interview with the Vampire had this great Kirsten Dunst character, who was this young child vampire and she was horrified when she realized she couldn’t age.” To me, the beauty and tragedy of X-23’s continuing story was she leaves the institute when she’s 13. I could have pushed that younger. I could have made it 11. She’s going to continue to grow and mature and evolve, but because they activated her healing factor early, she’s going be trapped in her youthful body for a long time.”
He was also pretty open as to where he’d like to see Laura go if he has any feedback on the upcoming films:
“We know the kids were created and tested. I’d love to see some of the stories that we told [in the comics], see as much as we can of how she came to be, but then really get into the stories of what she was forced to do and commit. She said she killed people. She said, bad people. The bulk of who X-23 and Laura killed in the comic books were bad people, but she did kill some children. She did kill a whole press corps. I think there’s something powerful about watching her go through those horrors without any say and without any ability to not take those actions.
A story I always wanted to tell was, once she’s free and once she’s gone through what she’s gone through, the only way she can have a hope for a future is for her to go back and trace the lives that remained and were harmed by the actions she was forced to commit. You put her on this journey of redemption. She faces the families that lost fathers. The orphans, everyone that was touched by her horrific acts. And she can go through them one by one and face everyone affected by the murders she was forced to commit, if she can get to the end of that road without being killed by those that remain, there’s something on the other side of that. I think it would truly be transformative for the character.”
It’ll likely be some time before an ‘X-23’ solo movie is announced and I almost feel that we’ll have a higher chance of her being brought back in time thanks to ‘X-Force’ but only time will tell. All I know is that we see Fox still trying to push through solo acts like ‘Gambit’ when all I can think is that if ‘X-23’ isn’t being pushed to the top of their list under the ‘Deadpool’ offshoots than the execs have no idea what they’re doing.
Did you enjoy Dafne’s performance as X-23? Do you think Laura will have a bright future in the cinematic X-Men universe? Share your thoughts below True Believers!
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
Stuart Conover is an author, blogger, and all around geek. When not busy being a father and husband he tries to spend as much time as possible immersed in comic books, science fiction, and horror! Would you like to know more? Follow him on Twitter!
