Chris Claremont Bishop

The X-Men were created for Marvel Comics by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, but many fans believe Chris Claremont to be the writer and creator of the most seminal of stories that the team has been through over the years.  Now, Claremont has spoken about who he would like to see take on the role of iconic X-Man Bishop in future X-Men films, should the franchise and new cinematic rights owner Disney continue to make them.

Claremont wrote the main storylines of the X-series, including the “flagship” title book ‘The Uncanny X-Men,’ from 1975-1991, much longer than any other one writer has taken on these characters.  According to records, he is credited with creating or co-creating a long list of characters, including Rogue, Psylocke, Shadowcat, Phoenix, Mystique, Emma Frost, Jubilee, Rachel Summers, Madelyne Pryor, Moira MacTaggert, Lilandra, Shadow King, Cannonball, Sabretooth, Mister Sinister, Captain Britain, Sunspot, Forge, and Gambit.  He created or co-created such well-known stories as “The Dark Phoenix Saga” and “Days of Future Past,” both of which have already been adapted to existing X-Men films.

The character of Bishop was not created by Claremont (John Byrne and Whilce Portacio are credited as co-creators), but utilized the character in his stories and obviously has a lot of love for him.  Bishop has actually been briefly portrayed on-screen in ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’ by Omar Sy, but in a very minor role.

Claremont, in a Facebook post, had this to say about his choice:

Dang! I mean, *Dang!* Just saw the Hobbs & Shaw trailer. Aside from the fact that they’d make a great F&F team-up cross-over with John Wick, the total revelation is Idris Elba as, wait for it, the Bad Guy. I’m sorry, I find myself rooting for him because, well, he’s him. And speaking purely from my X-perspective, he is *so* totally perfect for (my vision of) Bishop! Not to mention 007, bit that’s *so* another path entirely. Perhaps he could team-up with the Rock but if so who the heck could the studio find to prove a decent adversary? This could turn out to be a *very* inticing [sic] cinema summer…

Elba certainly has the acting chops to take on a complicated, time-traveling character like Bishop, so it will be interesting to see what direction, if any, Disney would like to take the X-Men on the big screen moving forward.

What do you think about Claremont’s opinion?  Are there other actors you’d be interested in seeing take on the role of Bishop?  Sound off in the comments below!