Dark Phoenix may look like X-Men: The Last Stand 2.0 but it's going to embrace cosmic elements from the comic books which that movie did not. Now, director Simon Kinberg has confirmed that Jessica Chastain's villain isn't actually called "Smith" but is a mixture of characters from the source material!
"I will say that Jessica’s character is not Mastermind but there are elements of the way Mastermind manipulates Jean that Jessica’s character does employ," Kinberg explained. "For me, as you’ll see, that Jessica’s character has elements of a few different characters from the comics." So, she may not be a Skrull after all but it also doesn't sound like she's Lilandra which is bound to disappoint many fans.
"She is from, let’s say, not our planet, her character. I’ll keep it relatively mysterious but it is a cosmic story in a way that is extraterrestrial, which is something we’ve never done in the X-Men movies before but is obviously something that is integral to the Dark Phoenix story so I felt we couldn’t’ do what we did on X3 and ignore that. We had to actually embrace it. So there’s a fair amount that takes place in space, and the inciting incident that starts to turn Jean, let’s say, dark and fill her with this power that she can’t control happens in space. And then there are forces from space that come to Earth because of that."
We also have a couple of new stills from Dark Phoenix, one of which confirms that Andrew Stehlin is playing Red Lotus, while Kota Eberhardt is taking on the role of Selene. Those two will no doubt be aligned with Magneto and part of his Brotherhood on Genosha (even though that island bears zero resemblance to the one in the comics, Kinberg has the opportunity to do something with that).
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