Log in member
In this exclusive interview at the SDCCM we talk in depth with the veteran writer and producer about superhero TV series adaptations, X-Men, and Superman.
"Hi Gamereactor friends, this is day three at the San Diego Comic-Con in Málaga and I think it is good to end it with some superheroes and some Marvel talk and some other works by you, Jeph. Thank you so much for joining us."
"You know, we've seen many types of TV adaptations for comics in the past decade.
It changed a lot. Since the days you were head of Marvel, what can you say about this evolution of how TV shows about comics are done nowadays?
Well, I don't know that they've changed all that much."
"I think that a really good genre television show is one that has great writing and has characters that you care about.
And so whether or not it's going all the way back to, you know, every generation has their own Superman, whether it's George Reeves or whether it's Dean Cain and Terry Hatcher and Lois and Clark or whether or not it's the Superman television show, that was all part of what I think people call the Flash universe or the Arrow universe."
"We were just doing different shows that had a different feel than what was in the movies.
And I think S.H.I.E.L.D. was the one that which kicked it off for us at Marvel Television.
And I'm very proud of and it ran seven seasons and 136 episodes.
It had just extraordinary writing and an incredible cast, but it was made to look as much like the movies as we could, in that it was very bright and it was very hopeful."
"And so when I took what many people refer to as the Netflix characters, which always makes me laugh because it's sort of like saying that a movie theater makes television shows and makes movies. And, you know, Netflix was where you watched the show.
Netflix didn't make the show. Marvel Television made the show."
"And we knew that what we wanted to do was tell stories that took place in a very different environment.
And when I first started talking about what I refer to as the Defenders characters, and believe me, I'm very grateful to the people at Netflix because they allowed us.
I mean, they bought in the room, they bought five series, not five pilots."
"They said, we're in. We're going to give you a season of every one of these characters.
And then later on, bought the Punisher afterwards.
So, you know, Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist and the Defenders.
And I remember saying that the movies look very red, white and blue."
"And I don't mean that in any kind of patriotic sense or American sense.
I said, really, what I'm talking about is, is that Iron Man is red. Captain America is blue.
And if you look at what New York looks like, it's a very shiny white light.
The Avengers Tower was this white light and the streets were clean and everybody was walking around like it was the safest place on Earth, living in New York."
"And I wanted to do a story that took place in Hell's Kitchen.
And I said to everybody, take a look at the movies that were made in the early 1970s by Martin Scorsese, whether it was Taxi Driver or Billy Friedkin did the French Connection.
I said, they were shot in a part of New York that you didn't want to go into."
"And I said, when you look at the color scheme on our shows, I want the blue to be so faded out that it sort of looks like steel and that the yellow is more like the amber on a taxi cab when the light headlights are coming around at night and that there's steam coming out of the street because we're in Hell's Kitchen. So Hell is below us."
"And that set a tone and it basically said, look, it doesn't mean we're not going to do jokes.
It doesn't mean that we're not going to have that Marvel special feel to it.
But we are going to be a little bit more violent and we are going to be a little bit more like the comics.
And I'm very grateful to the people at Netflix."
"And I'm really super grateful to the upper management at Marvel who said, go ahead.
Because the movie people looked at us like we were gum on their shoe.
And so my boss of the television division would say to me, just keep telling everybody it's all connected."
"So that's what I did. It is all connected. These stories are all there.
Now, is it ironic that five years after I left, that as though they're Indiana Jones and they found these stories that nobody ever thought of?
When I was there, when they would say to us, we're never going to make these stories."
"And now they're making the stories. Because at the end of the day, it's not about the stories.
It's about the writing. It's about the actors.
It's about having someone who believed in what it was that we were doing.
And I had 125 people who worked for me that loved what they were doing."
"And every one of them has gone on to great success. And I'm so proud of all of them.
Absolutely.
Nothing that I did or said would have made any difference at all if those people weren't there in order to make that happen."
"And I'm particularly proud of my friends who are the actors that I cast, whether it was Charlie Cox or Vincent D'Onofrio or Christian Ritter or Mike Colter or John Bernthal.
Those were people that we found and said, let's make them into superheroes.
And they're still friends. And I still care about them enormously."
"So if they get a chance to experience what we experienced from 2015 to 2020, good for them. Great for them.
I want to ask you about X-Men of Apocalypse.
I met, this is a really nice connection because I attended the Napoli Comicon, you know, with one 'C', Comicon.
They turned 25 years old this year."
"And I met Simone di Meo and we had this really nice interview.
And now I met you. So what can you tell me about that specific work and working with him?
I got a call from C. B. Cebulski, who is the magician of Marvel, the boss of bosses.
And he called me and he said, we're going to reboot the X-Men."
"And do you have any unfinished business?
Actually, what he said was, don't you have unfinished business in the X-Men?
And I laughed and I said, first of all, I haven't written for Marvel in almost 15 years.
And because I was running a television division."
"While I was running a television division, they said, you can't work in the comic book division.
Oh, really?
You only have one job.
OK."
"And I sort of went, well, that's sort of weird that you've taken one of your best soccer players and told him to sit on the bench.
But OK, I'll be happy to work on the television division.
And so when I left TV, I wasn't planning on working on anything.
And so when they called and they said, what do you think about the X-Men?
I said, look, it was a long time ago."
"And CBC, yeah, it was almost 30 years, 25 years.
And are there any stories that you wanted to tell that you never got to tell?
I said, well, as much as I love the Age of Apocalypse.
And look, I had just started in the X-Men office."
"And if it wasn't for those people, no one would know I was alive.
So that's really the first place that I broke.
And yes, I've done some work in Batman.
Not a lot."
"I was about to ask you about the Long Halloween and the Last Halloween We hadn't started The Long Halloween.
I had just done the first Legends of the Dark Knight special.
I didn't mean to interrupt you."
"And so I loved it.
But at the end of Age of Apocalypse, everything just flipped back.
And I went to then who was the CB of the time.
And I said, so it's a dream."
"Which I think is the worst kind of television episode, which is where you find out that Clark is evil and Lex is the hero.
And at the end, he wakes up.
And Lana is sitting there going, are you OK?
You were yelling my name."
"And you go, so that was just a dream?
It doesn't count?
I said, this has to count somehow.
And the editor said to me, no, it's fine."
"OK, fine.
You want to make it count?
X-Men will cross over.
And you can write the X-Men book.
And it'll count."
"And then that fell apart very quickly.
Because what they wanted to do with X-Men and what I wanted to do with X-Men were two different things.
And I said, look, I don't need to do this."
"Thanks.
It's been great.
And so CB then said, so it is unfinished business.
And I said, well, no, I haven't really thought about it."
"He said, well, if you could tell a story that counted with those characters, what would it be?
I said, well, we have to talk about who's going to draw it before we can do anything."
"And I happened to be in Lake Como.
We talked about a lot of very big name guys.
I sort of really wanted somebody from that period.
The truth is, the person I really wanted was Joe Madureira."
"And Joe's very successful.
And not going to work in comics.
And I respected that.
And so I was at Lake Como.
And I was sitting with my friend Simone Bianchi."
"And sitting across from me at another table is this young man.
And even though he's not, I mean, he's in his 30s.
But he looks like he's 25.
And he has a line around the block."
"And I'm like, and I turned to Simone.
And I said, who is that?
And he said, you should talk to his manager, who's Matty.
And who's my manager?
And I said, okay."
"So I called Matty over.
And I said, who is that?
And he said, that's Simone.
I said, no, I'm sitting with Simone.
Who is that?
And he says, no, that's another Simone."
"And we refer to them as Little Simone and Big Simone.
And I said, why is everyone looking at his stuff?
He said, well, come over and look at his stuff.
And I came over."
"And I looked.
And I got so excited.
And it never occurred to me.
I hadn't worked with somebody that I hadn't ever worked with before in years."
"And it was not somebody who was really known at Marvel.
And so we sat for two days.
And I just asked him questions.
What do you like to draw?
And what's your favorite characters?
He said, I love Spider-Man."
"I said, it's not going to be Spider-Man.
And he said, I love the X-Men.
And I said, okay, what if we were going to do this thing?
And he was like, oh, my God, that would be so amazing."
"But I'm under contract.
And, you know, it's not going to be right away.
When is your contract up?
And I said, okay.
And I called Tom Brevoort."
"And I said, do you know who Simone di Meo is?
He goes, of course I know who Simone di Meo is.
But he's under contract.
I said, well, if he wasn't under contract, could we do this together?
He said, I'll get back to you and call the next day."
"And he said, we'd love to do that.
And that's how it started.
And little Simone and I talk every day.
And he sends me the most beautiful pages."
"And then I called Joe Madureira and said, listen, if I'm going to do this thing, I need you to do a variant cover on all the issues.
And he goes, well, who's drawing it?
And I said, he's an artist."
"I don't know whether or not you know him.
And at the same time, he said, it better not be Simone di Meo.
And I said, why did you say that?
And he said, because he's too good to work in comics."
"I want him to work in games.
I don't want him to keep working.
I thought when his contract was up at DC that he would come work for me.
And I said, well, will you do these covers?
He goes, I'll do the covers not for you."
"I'll do the covers for Simone.
And that's how we got him.
That's a beautiful story.
I wanted to ask you many things, but those questions have been fantastic."
"And Samir over here is going to kill me.
So just to wrap up, I wanted to ask you about Lost.
But I'd rather ask you about Superman for all seasons.
What would he do in today's world?
Exactly the same thing."
"He's a character who, and I think when you look at how much of James Gunn's new Superman movie, obviously there's a lot that was inspired.
I mean, James has been very, very kind to me, saying that between All-Star Superman and Superman for All Seasons, that's what inspired him."
"It's a story about hope.
And it's a story about being kind.
And in the world that we live in right now, it's a question that I always ask, which is, can we use some of that?
I don't want to solve the problems."
"I just want people to act differently.
And when you have a character like Superman who doesn't need to punch you in the face, he just needs to show you the best that we can be.
That would be the story that I would tell."
"That's a beautiful way to wrap this up.
Thank you so much for your time, Jeph.
Enjoy your time in Malaga and the San Diego Comic-Con."
