With the Disney-Fox mega deal almost done, the rights of X-Men characters will be transferred to Disney which would very much like to introduce them into the MCU in the long run. But in the short-run, there are a number of X-Men projects which have gone into production. Well, the biggest of them all is X-Men Dark Phoenix, which is adapting one of the most iconic comic-book storylines by Chris Claremont and John Byrne.
The movie is produced and directed by Simon Kinberg. The other producers include Bryan Singer and Hutch Parker. The plot revolves around Jean Grey’s mind taken over by an overwhelming dark force that turned her so powerful that she became a threat to humanity itself. The entire X-Men clan now have to unite to prevent her from committing large-scale atrocities.
According to Claremont, the idea is to create a powerful female cosmic character which could be integrated in the larger mutant universe. 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.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=XUIRrMRA-7s
The movie has already finished filming and it was supposed to come out in 2018 but now it’s pushed to early 2019. The producers have asked more time for CGI work and reshoot some of the scenes. The fans are complaining that there hasn’t been an official full-fledged trailer yet, and still there is no hint of it coming anytime soon. But till that time, an unofficial trailer has hit online which will keep you engaged.
The biggest challenge in front of ‘Dark Phoenix’ is to undo the mistakes made by X-Men: Apocalypse. Here’s what Simon Kinberg said:
“I think we took our eye off what has always been the bedrock of the franchise which is these characters. It became about global destruction and visual effects over emotion and character.”
He added:
“It’s always dangerous if your script is evolving while you’re shooting, Certainly, in hindsight, we all feel like the genre has been evolving aesthetically and tonally and that the film didn’t. There’s a lot that I think is very good in the film but, as a whole, it was struggling to find ways to coalesce, narratively emotionally and in terms of plot. Aesthetically, it felt sort of dated relative to an evolution you were seeing play out everywhere else. We learned a lot from that.”
A whole host of X-Men characters will be coming back including Mystique, Prof. Xavier, Magneto, Beast, Quicksilver, Psylocke etc. The younger versions of Jean Grey and Cyclops will also be featured in the movie. According to a new report, Kinberg has plans to show an entire range of dark powers that Jean acquires once she merges with the “Phoenix force”. Well, she will become uncontrollable and a whole lot of people will die including mutants.
Here’s the official description:
“Our source told us that Kinberg 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.”
Further, EW’s special issue on ‘Dark Phoenix’ confirmed the iconic location ‘Genosha’ i.e Magneto’s base of operations. It’s possible that Magnet first becomes an ally of Dark Phoenix and then realize his deadly mistake. It said:
“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.”
The brief plot synopsis 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”.
