With the release of Entertainment Weekly this week we’ve gotten a whole load of new info about X-Men: Dark Phoenix. Directed by Simon Kinberg the film will be the seventh entry in to the franchises main set of films.
We’ve pulled together some of the best bits from the magazine to get you updated on goings on in the X-verse! Don’t forget the spoiler alert!
The X-Men go to space!
After years of fans wishing for the franchise to finally head in to outer space it’s happening! As you can see from this piece of concept art the team will be heading in to space for a short time. That journey will act as the catalyst to the Phoenix character emerging.
The creative team behind the film have confirmed we won’t be visiting other worlds just yet. But if this art is anything to go by it could still be an awesome set piece in the film. If you look closely you can see the figure of Jean Grey engulfed in a bright light floating outside the ship. When a solar flare hits the ship Jean will use her powers to combat them, the excessive force kick off events for the rest of the film.
Genosha
Another aspect of the X-Men universe that fans have been clamouring for is Genosha. The magazine revealed that Michael Fassbender’s Magneto will be living on his new mutant haven. “He’s set up this place for mutants that don’t have a home to go to and they can seek refuge there, They have to work as a community but it’s a safe place for them and they’ll be accepted. It’s the mutant homeland.” says Kinberg.
Seemingly it will be a visit from Jean (or could it be Phoenix?) to the island which will bring Magneto back in to the thick of the adventure.
Queen of the Skrulls
From the announcement of her casting fans had presumed Chastain would be playing Lilandra of the Shi’ar empire. Now it seems we have confirmation that is not the case. Described as an alien shapeshifter who is attracted to Earth by the Phoenix force.
Speaking of the character Chastain says “Simon and I were talking about the character and I said, ‘I keep thinking of the vet who tells you you need to put your dog down,’ There’s something very clinical about it.”
A more maternal Mystique?
Nobody expected Academy Award Winner Jennifer Lawrence would return after her contract ended with Apocalypse. None were more surprised than Lawrence herself apparently. “I kind of f—ed myself,” Lawrence says. “Because when I was trying to talk Simon into directing, he said something like, ‘If I direct it, you have to do it,’ and I was like, ‘Of course! Duh!’ Then they offered me the movie, and I was like, ‘Goddammit!’” But she adds, “It was the fan base, though, too — the other reason was for the fans.”
On the topic of how Mystique has grown Lawrence said “She’s grown up a lot, 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.”
Complex character
In EW’s own words Turner says that she studied multiple personality disorder and schizophrenia in order to better prepare to portray both sides of Jean’s personality once the Phoenix manifests itself.
“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.”
A death is coming
The last time we saw Phoenix on film we witnessed the character killing her love interest Cyclops and mentor Professor X. This photo does seem to confirm rumours that a major character will due during the course of the film. It’s worth noting that both Xavier and Cyclops are stood at the graveside so both seem likely to survive for at least some of the film. You can also see Nightcrawler and Storm stood there so that narrows down the victims slightly.
Could this be Jennifer Lawrence’s excuse to leave the franchise?
Learning from previous mistakes
It’s no secret that reviewers and fans were not kind to previous film X-Men: Apocalypse. The last film in the franchise to be directed by the embattled Bryan Singer suffered a perceived lack of quality after the success of X-Men: Days of Future Past. Speaking of lessons learned from that film Kinberg had some interesting words of wisdom to say “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.”
Producer Hutch Parker also discussed how the creative team have approached things differently this time around “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.”
X-Men: Dark Phoenix is being directed by Simon Kinberg. James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence and Michael Fassbender are confirmed to return to the roles of Charles Xavier, Mystique and Magneto respectively. Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan, Olivia Munnm Nicholas Hoult, Alexandra Shipp and Kodi Smit-McPhee will also return.
The film is due for release on November 2, 2018.
