The latest issue of Entertainment Weekly delves deep into X-Men: Dark Phoenix, a movie which has largely been forgotten about with all the furore surrounding the possibility that the X-Men are just days away from returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, there's no denying the first wave of details we've heard are exciting and if this instalment of the franchise - from first-time director Simon Kinberg - is great, it will be a nice way to bid farewell to this iteration of the iconic Marvel team.
With all of that in mind, we've taken a deep dive into the latest issue to find every single new piece of information about X-Men: Dark Phoenix and presented it here in this easy to read, in-depth guide.
We also take a look at a few reasons why X-Men: Dark Phoenix could be a disappointment, something these new details sadly point to being the case. After all, as a writer, Kinberg has had mixed fortunes with the franchise (he wrote Days of Future Past but also The Last Stand and Apocalypse) and it's possible this movie will leave us all anxious to see the team standing alongside The Avengers ASAP.
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Jean's Changing Personality
Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner says she studied multiple personality disorder and schizophrenia in order to portray Jean's duality in X-Men: Dark Phoenix and the actress went on to shed some light on what the influence of the Phoenix is going to do to the Jean we all know and love.
"So many scenes I have to go from broken-down Jean — that’s when she's most subsceptible to Phoenix infiltrating her — to this confident, arrogant, judgmental character within milliseconds." It is basically just a split personality the character will have then and that also doesn't sound massively different to X-Men: The Last Stand. Hopefully, there will be a big difference in terms of her powers too.
There's Going To Be A Huge Twist
Entertainment Weekly describes X-Men: Dark Phoenix as "the most sinister, and somber, chapter in the saga and includes a massive twist halfway through that will irrevocably change the course of the franchise." Needless to say, that's left fans wondering what that might be, especially as the death of Charles Xavier or something similar really wouldn't cut it after what we saw in X-Men: The Last Stand!
Perhaps one of the team will be revealed as a Skrull or Magneto will end up taking over the team when Charles oversteps the mark? Either way, it sounds like it will be a game changing moment which results in long lasting changes to the franchise. That's a bold but admittedly exciting move at this stage.
Things Behind The Scenes Have Improved
Don't Expect To Visit Another Galaxy
When it was first revealed that X-Men: Dark Phoenix would adapt the Dark Phoenix Saga, fans started getting excited about the possibility of seeing these heroes travel into outer space, encountering the Shi'ar Empire along the way. Unfortunately, while some of the action will take place away from Earth, comments from Kinberg point to that boiling down to a single trip to save that shuttle.
"Frankly, part of what excited me about it was it was not just going to be an earth-bound movie," says the first-time director. "It’s not as much in another galaxy as Star Wars but it’s the first time we’ve left Earth." That's a good start but probably not what a lot of us were hoping for here.
Improved Visual Effects
X-Men: Dark Phoenix finished shooting quite some time ago but there's still a little under a year to go until it reaches theaters. That's a very long post-production process but it turns out there's a very good reason for that. "I wanted the post time to deliver on the nuance of the visual effects, not just the scale of them," Kinberg explains. "That takes time." In this case, that's over a year, so those shots of a fiery Jean Grey will hopefully end up looking nothing short of flawless on the big screen.
Mystique's New Role
Love her or hate her, Jennifer Lawrence's Mystique will be returning in X-Men: Dark Phoenix and will still have a key role in this movie. "She’s grown up a lot," the actress explains. "She’s more maternal which surprised me. She starts to get more protective of the [school] children and Charles wants to push them to prove to the world that mutants can be good for humanity and I just see them as small children." That sounds like a conflict we've already seen play out a few times before.
The Skrulls
When Jessica Chastain was first cast in X-Men: Dark Phoenix, it was widely reported that she would be taking on the role of Shi'ar Empire leader Lilandra. Entertainment Weekly, however, makes it clear that her "quiet but brutal" villain is actually a shapeshifting alien who will be manipulating the Phoenix for her own means. It could be that she's a cross between Mastermind and a Skrull then!
What she wants hasn't been revealed as of yet but just like Fox raced to get Quicksilver on the big screen before Marvel Studios, it appears as if they've done the same with the Skrulls (who are set to appear in Captain Marvel the year after this movie is released). The problem is, in a world where Mystique is constantly shape-shifting, there's really nothing special about what this villain can do.