The latest issue of Entertainment Weekly delves deep into X-Men: Dark Phoenix, a movie which has largely been forgotten about with all the furore surrounding the possibility that the X-Men are just days away from returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, there's no denying the first wave of details we've heard are exciting and if this instalment of the franchise - from first-time director Simon Kinberg - is great, it will be a nice way to bid farewell to this iteration of the iconic Marvel team.
With all of that in mind, we've taken a deep dive into the latest issue to find every single new piece of information about X-Men: Dark Phoenix and presented it here in this easy to read, in-depth guide.
We also take a look at a few reasons why X-Men: Dark Phoenix could be a disappointment, something these new details sadly point to being the case. After all, as a writer, Kinberg has had mixed fortunes with the franchise (he wrote Days of Future Past but also The Last Stand and Apocalypse) and it's possible this movie will leave us all anxious to see the team standing alongside The Avengers ASAP.
To view this list of details in its entirety, simply click on the VIEW LIST (ONE PAGE) button below!
Jean's Changing Personality
Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner says she studied multiple personality disorder and schizophrenia in order to portray Jean's duality in X-Men: Dark Phoenix and the actress went on to shed some light on what the influence of the Phoenix is going to do to the Jean we all know and love.
"So many scenes I have to go from broken-down Jean — that’s when she's most subsceptible to Phoenix infiltrating her — to this confident, arrogant, judgmental character within milliseconds." It is basically just a split personality the character will have then and that also doesn't sound massively different to X-Men: The Last Stand. Hopefully, there will be a big difference in terms of her powers too.
There's Going To Be A Huge Twist
Entertainment Weekly describes X-Men: Dark Phoenix as "the most sinister, and somber, chapter in the saga and includes a massive twist halfway through that will irrevocably change the course of the franchise." Needless to say, that's left fans wondering what that might be, especially as the death of Charles Xavier or something similar really wouldn't cut it after what we saw in X-Men: The Last Stand!
Perhaps one of the team will be revealed as a Skrull or Magneto will end up taking over the team when Charles oversteps the mark? Either way, it sounds like it will be a game changing moment which results in long lasting changes to the franchise. That's a bold but admittedly exciting move at this stage.
Things Behind The Scenes Have Improved
Bryan Singer was recently fired from Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody and with reports pointing to him having been warned beforehand that he had to behave himself on that set after previous erratic behaviour, it sounds like things have really calmed down for the X-Men franchise. Both Jennifer Lawrence and Jessica Chastain have praised Kinberg's direction, with the former saying, "These movies have always been fun amidst chaos, and now they were fun with no chaos"
Don't Expect To Visit Another Galaxy
When it was first revealed that X-Men: Dark Phoenix would adapt the Dark Phoenix Saga, fans started getting excited about the possibility of seeing these heroes travel into outer space, encountering the Shi'ar Empire along the way. Unfortunately, while some of the action will take place away from Earth, comments from Kinberg point to that boiling down to a single trip to save that shuttle.
"Frankly, part of what excited me about it was it was not just going to be an earth-bound movie," says the first-time director. "It’s not as much in another galaxy as Star Wars but it’s the first time we’ve left Earth." That's a good start but probably not what a lot of us were hoping for here.
Improved Visual Effects
X-Men: Dark Phoenix finished shooting quite some time ago but there's still a little under a year to go until it reaches theaters. That's a very long post-production process but it turns out there's a very good reason for that. "I wanted the post time to deliver on the nuance of the visual effects, not just the scale of them," Kinberg explains. "That takes time." In this case, that's over a year, so those shots of a fiery Jean Grey will hopefully end up looking nothing short of flawless on the big screen.
Mystique's New Role
Love her or hate her, Jennifer Lawrence's Mystique will be returning in X-Men: Dark Phoenix and will still have a key role in this movie. "She’s grown up a lot," the actress explains. "She’s more maternal which surprised me. She starts to get more protective of the [school] children and Charles wants to push them to prove to the world that mutants can be good for humanity and I just see them as small children." That sounds like a conflict we've already seen play out a few times before.
The Skrulls
When Jessica Chastain was first cast in X-Men: Dark Phoenix, it was widely reported that she would be taking on the role of Shi'ar Empire leader Lilandra. Entertainment Weekly, however, makes it clear that her "quiet but brutal" villain is actually a shapeshifting alien who will be manipulating the Phoenix for her own means. It could be that she's a cross between Mastermind and a Skrull then!
What she wants hasn't been revealed as of yet but just like Fox raced to get Quicksilver on the big screen before Marvel Studios, it appears as if they've done the same with the Skrulls (who are set to appear in Captain Marvel the year after this movie is released). The problem is, in a world where Mystique is constantly shape-shifting, there's really nothing special about what this villain can do.
Classic Costumes
At the end of X-Men: Apocalypse, the X-Men were finally decked out in classic superhero costumes. They looked a little goofy (Fox probably could have done with taking some tips from Marvel Studios or Warner Bros.) but were a step in the right direction. However, it appears as if some big changes have been made in X-Men: Dark Phoenix as a closer look at the photo below proves.
As you can see, it appears as if the team is decked out in new versions of the blue and yellow costumes from X-Men: First Class rather than individual costumes. Whether that's a good or bad thing will likely depend on how much you liked those but we can all agree that it's better than black leather!
We're Getting Another Time Jump
X-Men: First Class took us back to the 1960s to tell the origin story of the X-Men and subsequent movies have skipped ahead by roughly ten years despite the fact that makes no chronological sense (Professor X, for example, has aged by just six years over the course of thirty). Well, X-Men: Dark Phoenix is predictably making the leap to the 1990s and will specifically take place in 1992.
Whether Kinberg will make better use of that decade than Singer did with the 80s in X-Men: Apocalypse remains to be seen but there's definitely fun to be had here in terms of fashion and references.
The (Disappointing) Birth Of The Pheonix
X-Men: Dark Phoenix is set to kick off with the team travelling into outer space to rescue some stranded astronauts but when a solar flare hits the X-Jet, Jean absorbs those and "hurls them back out into space." However, that's "what triggers, awakens, creates this Phoenix force and voice inside her." There are some similarities to the comic books there but this still sounds like a big departure!
After all, the Phoenix is supposed to be an ancient cosmic entity which possesses Jean because of her powerful psychic powers and turning it into just a dormant part of her abilities and giving it a fiery makeover makes it sounds an awful lot like Kinberg is repeating past mistakes and going down the same route as X-Men: The Last Stand. Here's hoping the movie manages to surprise us, though.
Huge Set Pieces
As superhero movies evolved, it became clear that changes needed to be made to the X-Men franchise. That started with X-Men: Days of Future Past and continued with X-Men: Apocalypse, a movie which went full on blockbuster. However, X-Men: Dark Phoenix producer Hutch Parker claims that this movie will be the biggest instalment to date and unlike any X-Men movie we've ever seen.
"They might be the biggest set pieces we’ve ever done," he claims. "The space [set piece] is one of the biggest things we’ve ever done. Overall visual effects, scale of action and spectacle, it’s probably the biggest we’ve done but much more in the service of these characters and their conflict than for scale sake." It's hard to find fault with those remarks but is bigger always better?
Someone's Gonna Die
When X-Men: Dark Phoenix kicks off, the team has managed to become national heroes and that success has gone straight to the head of Charles Xavier. As a result, Professsor X is pushing the team to do more dangerous missions but will that lead to the death of one of his students? The image below shows Charles, Nightcrawler, Cyclops and Storm mourning for someone but it's feasible that this funeral is for a character played by a cast member that chose not to return for this instalment of the franchise.
So, those are all the new details about X-Men: Dark Phoenix! Now, why might this movie suck? If you're easily offended or would rather stop reading, simply turn away now...
The Movie Doesn't Matter
While it's not set in stone quite yet, all the signs are pointing to Disney and Fox merging and the former owning the latter's film and TV studios. While things are unlikely to be fully worked out until the end of next year, that means the X-Men are coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and there's no way Kevin Feige won't end up rebooting these characters and starting from scratch.
As a result, X-Men: Dark Phoenix is going to serve as a farewell to this current iteration of the franchise and that makes it a little hard to get invested in. After all, whatever happens here, there will be no sort of follow-up and anything it sets up for the future will be rendered moot the second that deal goes down. In fact, many fans would probably be happy skipping this release altogether!
Simon Kinberg Is Directing
It's widely believed that Kinberg directed Fantastic Four's abysmal reshoots and that alone should be cause for concern. Throw in the fact that writers and producers who attempt to helm a big budget movie for their directorial debut rarely get it right (just look at Alex Kurtzman and The Mummy) and it would be much easier to be excited about this one with someone experienced in charge.
We Don't Need This Story Again
Kinberg dropped the ball in a big way with X-Men: The Last Stand's botched attempt at adapting the Dark Phoenix Saga and regardless of him wanting another chance with the tale, there's really no need for us to see it all over again. It also feels like it's way too soon to be heading down this route with Jean Grey, especially as we barely know this version of the character at this point in time.
No matter what changes have been made for X-Men: Dark Phoenix, there are bound to be similarities with what's come before and that's going to hurt this movie. There are also a lot of other great stories which could have been adapted here which would have taken the franchise in a fresh direction but that's not happening and there's no denying that it feels like a huge mistake on Fox's part.