X-Men Reign of X era has the theme of "expansion" according to Jonathan Hickman

We're still in the first blush of Marvel's 'Reign of X' era of X-Men, and the line's head writer Jonathan Hickman (nicknamed 'Head of X' by Marvel) has come out giving a better idea of what to expect from the burgeoning line of mutant books. In an interview with AIPT, he answers several fan questions about the big picture and the small details of 'Reign of X.'

Hickman said that his "favorite shenanigans" from his X-run so far has been the unstated absence of an actual team called X-Men since the advent of his run, which has gone on 100 issues when including tie-in titles. That'll change, however, with 'Reign of X'.

X-Men #17 cover (Image credit: Marvel Comics)

"So what can you expect from Scott and Jean from here on out? A little thing called the X-Men. Mutant heroes doing hero stuff," Hickman revealed.

While Hickman said he doesn't have a specific theme in mind for 'Reign of X' (and didn't for 'Dawn of X' before that), he did say if pressed they could be summed up into one word each: 'Dawn of X' is about 'Foundation,' and 'Reign of X' will be about 'Expansion.'

The bridge to that was the recently-concluded 'X of Swords' event, which Hickman said was born out of Tini Howard's Excalibur plans, and they together seeded "a bunch of stuff" that'll grow and bloom in 2021 with 'Reign of X.'

"I just remember looking at everything you had kind of built up to that point, and like you said, knowing some places we wanted to go," Hickman said to Howard," and knew that it would all kind of Voltron together into a cool story where we could pivot the entire line while also seed a bunch of stuff that’s going to be coming up in the next year or so."

X-Men #18 cover (Image credit: Marvel Comics)

The writer goes on to say that there'll be some new X-Men titles launching (in addition to the announced S.W.O.R.D., Children of the Atom, X-Corp, and Moira MacTaggart books), along with some new creators to go with them.

"In addition to those, we do have a couple of surprise books that we’re going to be springing on you, and a few new creators coming into the office that everyone is very excited about," Hickman says. "They’ll be working on titles and stories that we feel fit in perfectly into this idea of the line. It’s going to be a pretty interesting 2021, I think."

Si Spurrier is a creator that was attached to the 'Reign of X' announcement, which would be a return to the X-Men line as he wrote X-Force, X-Men: Legacy, and several one-shots from 2010 to 2014.

Get ready for what comes next with our list of all the new X-Men comics, graphic novels, and collections coming in 2020 and beyond.

Chris Arrant covered comic book news for Newsarama from 2003 to 2022 (and as editor/senior editor from 2015 to 2022) and has also written for USA Today, Life, Entertainment Weekly, Publisher's Weekly, Marvel Entertainment, TOKYOPOP, AdHouse Books, Cartoon Brew, Bleeding Cool, Comic Shop News, and CBR. He is the author of the book Modern: Masters Cliff Chiang, co-authored Art of Spider-Man Classic, and contributed to Dark Horse/Bedside Press' anthology Pros and (Comic) Cons. He has acted as a judge for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, the Harvey Awards, and the Stan Lee Awards. Chris is a member of the American Library Association's Graphic Novel & Comics Round Table. (He/him)