The X-Men saga has indeed come a long way from original X-Men trilogy to X-Men: First Class, from X-Men: Days of Future Past to X-Men: Apocalypse and now finally adopting the most iconic comic-book plot in the upcoming X-Men: Dark Phoenix.
2018 was supposed to break the record of putting out the most number of Superhero movies as it was going to bring out 8 movies in the Superhero genre. This was supposed to be the biggest year for Marvel projects as we had 7 Marvel related Superhero movies coming out this year.
But Fox recently pulled something out of their bags which no one can understand and reduced the number of Superhero movies coming this year to 6. Yes, not just New Mutants, X-Men: Dark Phoenix had also been pushed to 2019 a month ago.
In the wake of the upcoming Disney-Fox merger we know that if it does go through successfully, the X-Men franchise from Fox that we have been seeing for the last 18-19 years will be fully done. Fox has been building up spin-offs since people were getting sick of seeing the same old Mutants plot again and again.
The need of creating something new, innovative and really awesome brought us the most surprising Deadpool and Logan. Well, we are getting another one of Deadpool movies which is really playing out as a franchise builder since it has so many new characters being set up for the future in the name of Josh Brolin’s Cable, Zazie Beats’ Domino, and the entire X-Force.
But other than Deadpool, people are surely done with the old cliché X-Men movies Fox has been bringing out this entire time. Sure they have had 3 of the best team up comic book movies with X-Men: First Class, X-Men: Days of Future Past and X-2: Men United. But now, it is the right time to end this franchise for good.
With Fox getting ready for the merger, they still have to keep things going and keep their profits up to let the shareholders be happy for the while. But there is got to be Plan B in case something goes wrong and the merger doesn’t go through.
Still, things do look pretty fine, and that is why Fox is keeping their movies under development as a back-up, and simultaneously, getting ready for the merger of the century. This is one of the reasons why Fox has been delaying projects as well. Gambit keeps getting delayed twice every year, and as soon as the deal goes through, it’s going to be bye-bye Gambit. New Mutants got delayed for 16 months in the name of reshoots and adding some light and a few characters into the movie. But the tip of the iceberg is surely X-Men: Dark Phoenix.
Everything was going fine and the movie was set to come out on November 1 this year, but it got pushed to February 14, 2019. The reason given was that the movie did seem to be a giant mess, and especially the third act of the movie was total chaos, so they have been going through reshoots to kind of mold the narrative of the movie, get the third act right, and actually give the franchise a closing.
The movie is facing certain problems as the sets which they earlier shot on were totally scrapped, and now they are creating those sets digitally through CGI. Ignoring all the clutter, this may actually be a good way to close off things for the X-Verse that has been going on for 19 whole years.
Since it is the time to bring everyone together under one shared Universe, it would be the perfect time to give the X-Men a send-off and start off fresh by developing a good story and give them a fitting farewell they well deserve. And afterward the Fantastic Four could be brought into the MCU.
As far as the larger X-Men narrative goes, this could be a big mistake on the part of Fox for two reasons – Firstly, there was an attempt in the past to incorporate ‘Dark Phoenix’ plot but it failed miserably. Secondly, Jean Grey’s character is yet to be established in the universe and the makers are giving her huge arc which only indicates desperation to end the storyline. They are bringing alive ‘Dark Phoenix’ without even setting the stage for it.
The ‘Dark Phoenix’ is directed by Simon Kinberg who has claimed that he is going ape-shit when it comes to displaying massive powers of phoenix force. This means that major mutants are likely to die in their face-off with one of the most powerful cosmic beings in the universe. It is now confirmed that there is a death scene where at least one or all four that are in it will die. Here’s the description from a credible source:
“Our source told us that Kindberg is going to show us exactly how powerful Jean is and is willing to do it at the expense of one of the actors who has been with the franchise since the beginning. Currently, that’s the younger versions of Magneto, Professor X, Mystique and Beast from the X-Men: First Class reboot. We are told that Kindberg is holding nothing back in that, in the moment when Jean’s powers are on full display, they will become too much for her to handle. At that point, with her powers out of control, Jean will impale one of the returning mutants, leaving them dead. At least for now.”
Another theory is that Magneto will sacrifice himself for the team. At first, he would befriend Jean Grey in her Phoenix avatar but later he will realize how grave a mistake he has made and he will end up in a grave. Also, from the special EW issue, it is confirmed that Genosha, an iconic location from X-Men comics will be used in a movie, here’s the excerpt from the feature story:
“A confused Jean turns to Erik Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender), the rogue mutant who parted ways with the X-Men at the end of Apocalypse and now lives on an island named Genosha (small rocky island that served as Magneto and the Brotherhood’s base of operations), a destination comic-book fans will recognize. He’s set up this place for mutants that don’t have a home to go to, they have to work as a community, but it’s a safe place for them and they’ll be accepted.”
All these developments are raising an important question – Is X-Men: Dark Phoenix really being used as a movie that can bring closure to the X-Men franchise?
The only franchise that may just be able to continue would be Deadpool, but the trailer of the movie already teased that Deadpool may be done after this one as Wade himself suggested that the Studios nailed it with two, and they should just stop at that. It will still be a bummer if Deadpool 2 turns out to be a success setting up the future for X-Force and many other characters, but then everything gets scrapped off.
Well, time will tell about the fate of the movie. Here’s the official synopsis and it reads:
“Mystique, Beast, Storm, Nightcrawler and the rest of the X-Men spring into action when a malevolent, power-hungry force threatens to overtake Jean Grey’s mind”.
Hopefully, the MCU finds a good way to link this storyline itself in MCU without actually giving Deadpool the third reboot. The Deadpool Universe does deserve to be continued if Deadpool 2 is successful. So let’s see what happens. Deadpool 2 is coming out on May 16, 2018. Here’s the official synopsis, it reads:
“After surviving a near-fatal bovine attack, a disfigured cafeteria chef (Wade Wilson) struggles to fulfill his dream of becoming Mayberry’s hottest bartender while also learning to cope with his lost sense of taste. Searching to regain his spice for life, as well as a flux capacitor, Wade must battle ninjas, the yakuza, and a pack of sexually aggressive canines, as he journeys around the world to discover the importance of family, friendship, and flavor – finding a new taste for adventure and earning the coveted coffee mug title of World’s Best Lover”.
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