We recently got
our first look at Fox's upcoming film
X-Men: Dark Phoenix courtesy of Entertainment Weekly, and now we finally have some details to go along with those images.
Writer/director Simon Kinberg recently spoke to the magazine about mistakes they've made on past X-Men films. With X-Men: The Last Stand in particular, the studio attempted to tell the Jean Grey/Phoenix story, but made her a supporting character. Fox's Dark Phoenix will attempt to correct that by not just putting Sophie Turner's Jean Grey front and center, but also focusing largely on the other female mutants in the franchise. “I really wanted to acknowledge the strength of the women in the comic and in the actresses that we have and the central storyline demands it,” Kinberg explained.
In the past, the X-Men films could be accused of being a bit male-dominant, despite a number of strong female characters in the franchise. It seems Dark Phoenix will finally gives these females the spotlight they deserve. The publication notes: "At one point in Phoenix, Mystique actually jokes to Charles that the group should be renamed the “X-Women” due to how often the female characters save the male ones"
Adding a bit more context to the film, Sophie Turner, who plays Jean Grey, said, “It’s really exciting. I think there’s such a revolution in superhero movies. I feel like this movie is a revelation because of it being like a drama but the hero is a female and she’s also the villain. It really is about her relationships with the females in the film, especially Jessica Chastain’s character. It’s really interesting to have those two characters be kind of the two biggest characters in the movie and both be female and so layered and so complex.”
Although we have seen an image of Jessica Chastain's character in Dark Phoenix, there's still plenty of mystery surrounding her. The character, confirmed as a shapeshifting alien, has been described as "way, way smarter than we are."
Speaking to EW, Chastain revealed it was the female-dominated script that drew her to the film. “I’ve always wanted to do a big comic book franchise-y film but I had some issues with the female characters in the films I was being offered,” said Chastain, who has been very vocal about female representation in the film. “I was really pleased with this script because I think it’s a departure from the norm. This definitely passes the Bechdel test and I don’t know how many comic book films can say that.”
With Turner, Lawrence, and now Chastain leading Dark Phoenix, it certainly sounds promising. X-Men: Dark Phoenix soars into theaters November 2, 2018.