The X-Men franchise has really come a long way from the original cast of Bryan Singer’s X-Men movies to Wolverine bidding adieu to the fans in Logan. He came back with X-Men: First Class where we saw the younger versions of famous mutants comprising a new X-Men core team. It came after Brett Ratner disappointed hardcore X-Men fans with X-Men: The Last Stand as he messed up the timeline which was later fixed in X-Men: Days of Future Past.
Subsequently, X-Men Apocalypse was also directed by Bryan Singer but he couldn’t recreate the magic of the past movies. Apparently, we see the usual which we have already seen in previous X-Men movies – Apocalypse (an ancient creature played by Oscar Isaac) who was the most powerful and the first ever Mutant to have walked the Earth is now set to unleash the wrath, calls for a new world order, invite mutants who believe that Prof. Xavier has failed them. He has amassed an army of mutants for thousands of years.
On the other hand, we see a bunch of Mutants led by Mystique (played by Jennifer Lawrence) preparing new recruits for the inevitable war to save the mankind.
In X-Men: Apocalypse the entire focus of the franchise shifted to Jean Grey who was portrayed as the most powerful telepathic mutant in the current crop of students at Xavier’s’ special school. So, it’s natural that the makers chose to go down Phoenix route for the next project.
The title of the movie is X-Men: Dark Phoenix or X-Men 7 which is creating an enormous amount of buzz in the superhero market. The story revolves around Jean Grey’s transformation into a powerful, cosmic creature. She is played by Sophie Turner.
The movie will be directed by Simon Kinberg. He will make his debut in the universe working on his own script adapted from Dark Phoenix comics by Chris Claremont and John Byrne. The movie is set in the 1990’s following prequel trilogy format of setting each movie a decade apart.
In 1976, an acclaimed X-Men writer Chris Claremont who enjoys strong female characters wrote ‘Phoenix saga’ centered around Jean Grey. He said at the time:
“Our intent was to create an X-Men analog, if you will, to Thor – someone who was essentially the first female cosmic hero. We thought at the time we could integrate her into the book as well as Thor had been integrated into the Avengers.”
The idea was to create a first female cosmic superhero who could be integrated into mutant universe. In the plot, Jean Grey almost killed by solar energy, transformed into something else, she donned the mantle of fire and defeated the ruthless alien emperor. She merged with Phoenix force, could hold entire timelines in her hands and destroyed Apocalypse.
In a shocking turn of events, she turned on X-Men and then consumed an entire star, committing atrocities by the millions and thus the name Dark Phoenix.
The second X-Men movie lined up in 2018 is “The New Mutants”. The production is about to be wrapped up and we haven’t seen a single leaked set photo. Well, the official logo has now been released courtesy director Josh Boone (The Fault in our Stars). It is a blood splattered image teasing the horror elements which will be on display. It is being described as a first Marvel horror movie and a YA superhero adventure. The big villain in the movie is Demon Bear.
The third movie in the X-Men universe to be released in 2018 is Deadpool 2. It is currently into production, shooting scenes at Hatley Castle which is used for X-Mansion where young mutants are trained to harness their powers and become productive members of the society.
The movie has aroused huge expectations among X-Men fans and rightly so as the first movie’s global box office collections crossed $800 million marks while the cost of production was less than $60 million, making it the most successful superhero movie in the entire franchise.
The entire team of the original movie is coming back, from Blind-Al to Vanessa, the driver, Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead will be reprising their roles. Cable is in the mix, he is the time-traveling son of Cyclops and Madelyne Pryor (a clone of Jean Grey) who was trained to be the warrior in the future. His girlfriend Domino played by Zazie Beetz will also make an appearance.
Moreover, Domino (mercenary turned X-Men) has been confirmed by the makers. Both of these will play an anti-hero in order to balance the scales to Deadpool’s “happy go murdery” persona. It’s not clear yet if other mutants will crossover, but there is strong speculation that there will be a new kind of mutant, never before seen in the comics or movies.
Here’s wishing all the very best to everyone who is part of X-Men universe.
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