The thematic core of X-Men is tolerance. It's that for those of us who are different in any way - in a big way - whether it's you're a minority, you're a woman, you're a Muslim, you are suppressed or marginalized; it can go the whole spectrum, but even if you are shy or you feel like an outsider, and X-Men are outsiders.

I think the time has changed. Because of 9/11, because of the economy, it is more and more now. There is a darker awareness, although it would seem to reason that because life is so much tougher now people would seek entertainment to just totally escape.

In the Marvel world, some characters have similar powers. Initially some people might bump up against it, but if they really looked into the X-Men world they would see that characters do share similar powers.

What we always want to say [in X-men] is, "It's OK to be yourself, and actually it's a gift to be yourself. Whatever it is that you have, that may be your gift." I think that's what we always want to say, and spread it out, so have tolerance for other people who are different also.

There's 54 years of X-Men comics by now, so there are a lot of characters to explore.

I think it's good to tell the fans "this movie's going to lead to that, and that will lead to..."

At a certain point people want to see other movies besides comic book movies so you have to be really careful what you're going to pick, and how many are going to be released within a year.