X-MEN WRITER CONFIRMS LGBT SUBTEXT

One of the writers of X-Men: First Class has confirmed that the film was purposefully written, at least in part, as an allegory of the struggles of the LGBT community.

The X-Men films, based on the popular comic book series created in 1963, deals with a fictional group of people who have developed superpowers due to natural genetic mutations.

Many have previously noted the similarities between the discrimination and bigotry faced by the ‘mutant’ characters in the five X-Men films and that faced by LGBT people.

X-Men: First Class co-writer Zack Stentz has now confirmed that this was no accident when commenting on an article about the issue on the website Think Progress.

Stentz stepped in when another commenter, Deborah Hoff, argued that “there never was nor is there anything gay in X-Men“.

Stentz replied: “Um, no offense, but you’re wrong. I helped write the movie, and can tell you the gay rights/ post-holocaust Jewish identity / civil rights allegory stuff was all put in there on purpose.”

He added: “Joss Whedon designed the whole ‘Cure’ storyline in the comic books specifically as a gay allegory, and Bryan Singer wove his own feelings of outsiderdom as a gay man into the movie series.

“The whole ‘Have you ever tried NOT being a mutant’ coming out scene in X2 isn’t even particularly subtle, while it is effective,” he added.

While X-Men: First Class topped the film charts in its opening weekend in the US, its box-office taking of $55.1 million was not as high as anticipated, leading gay blog Queerty.com to ask, “did all the gay talk hurt X-Men’s box office?”