JUBILEE-Lana-Condor

Jubilee had tiny parts in past ‘X-Men’ movies, but in this summer’s ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’, the mallrat character gets to really shine as one of the core team.  The film version of Jubilee is different from the comic book/cartoon version in a lot of ways, beginning with her place on the team.  The character was a teen sidekick of sorts opposite the adult characters, but in ‘Apocalypse’, Jubilee, played by Lana Condor, is the same age as the others.  She’s also no novice.

As Condor explains:

“She is a student at the X Mansion and she’s been here for about 10 years, so she’s not new, unlike some of the other characters who’ve just arrived. She’s mostly with Scott [Tye Sheridan], Jean [Sophie Turner], and Kodi [Smit-McPhee, who plays Nightcrawler]. They’re like her good core friend group. And I think in this film she serves as a timepiece because you’ll never really forget that you’re in the ‘80s.”

Like totally!  Condor’s Jubilee sports a blazing yellow jacket like the comic book version, dazzled with pins that are “much older than me” (ouch!) bearing such declarations as “I love ‘80s,” “Take a chill pill,” and “Stay golden, Ponyboy.”

But don’t mistake her for some vapid Valley Girl.  There’s more to this Jubilee than meets the eye at first:

“She’s fun. She’s a really, really, really fun girl.  [She has a] very strong knowledge that something is going wrong, but in terms of knowing specifics, it’s very much like Hank [Nicholas Hoult] or Jen [Lawrence, who plays Mystique].”

Even her powers are modified to make her a bit more formidable:

“Jubilee, her power in the comic books is fireworks. In this film, I can safely say her power is more fire-ploid, plasmoid, electricity type.”

Technically, Jubilee has appeared in the prior X-Movies.  She appeared as a background character played by Katrina Florence in ‘X-Men’ and even though she isn’t called by name, there was no mistaking her yellow jacket and shades.  Kea Wong portrayed her in ‘X2’ in another bit part.  (Halle Berry called her by name, however.)  This Jubilee has a slightly larger scene that was cut from the final movie.  Finally, director Bryan Singer hoped to use her in ‘Days of Future Past’, as shown in this concept artwork:

jubilee_concept-art

Though Condor hopes that Jubilee will appear in upcoming films, saying “an even bigger character arc because she’s just starting out,” one element from  the comics probably won’t be included: her friendship with Wolverine.

“What I love about her in the cartoons and the comics is that she has a great relationship with Wolverine.  I met Hugh Jackman at Comic-Con. Oh my god, I wanted to die. Like really.”

Are you excited about a more fleshed out Jubilee in the X-Men movie-verse?

‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ directed by Bryan Singer and starring Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Ben Hardy, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Tye Sheridan, Alexandra Shipp, Sophie Turner, Lana Condor, Olivia Munn, and Oscar Isaac opens in theaters on May 27, 2016.

Source: Cinema Blend