WHEN it comes to sci-fi fanatics like us, we always have an answer for our favourite superhero action film.
But what if you’re not happy with the finale of the Avengers? You pin your hopes on the next fantasy action film — Dark Phoenix, set to premiere on June 6.
Here’s a breakdown on how this film fits into the X-Men timeline, and also what’s in store for the franchise. Reservations for Gold Class tickets are definitely in order.
What’s Dark Phoenix about?
This film will run on comic artist Chris Claremont’s iteration of the X-Men set in the 1980s. On a dangerous space mission, Jean Grey (played by Sophie Turner) gets hit with a cosmic force that greatly increases her Omega-level powers.
As she wrestles with this new but unstable power, she meets a mysterious alien (played by Jessica Chastain) who manipulates Jean into a mighty menace that turns against the X-Men. Things take a turn for the worse, and it falls onto the X-Men team to bring her down before it’s too late.
PS: If you can’t resist a spoiler from the film’s director Simon Kinberg, click here.
Didn’t we see the Phoenix in action before?
Avid fans would get this in a heartbeat. Indeed, the Phoenix Force was in X-Men: The Last Stand. After Jean helped the X-Men escape a dam explosion in X2, she returned as her evil Phoenix persona in The Last Stand.
In this 2006 film, she takes Magneto’s side in a confrontation with the X-Men when a cure for mutation is discovered, as it becomes a turning point for the mutant race.
However, the timeline gets erased with all the time travel in Days of Future Past, giving Kinberg the freedom to work with new cast members and timelines, like Apocalypse and Dark Phoenix.
Wait, is Dark Phoenix the last movie with this cast?
Rumours abound for the future of the X-Men franchise, given the Disney-Fox merger that became official earlier this year.
In the comics, the X-Men and Avengers were both allies and occasional foes, but they weren’t able to co-star on the big screen because X-Men rights were sold to Fox in ’93.
But now that Disney has merged with Fox, it isn’t clear if the series will be rebooted going into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Even if this Fox production does well, Marvel may eventually recruit new actors to play our favourite characters, so that they won’t get the baggage that’s associated with the Singer/Kinberg franchise.
What’s in store for future X-Men films
a better fantastic four movie (finally)
Fans are not just about over trashing Fox for the 2015 reboot, which went wrong for a multitude of reasons. Lucky for us, Marvel Studios has a pretty good track record at the box office. Will we get an adaptation good enough to make us forget the last? We can definitely hope so.
X-Men and Avengers face off
If you thought Endgame was epic, imagine these two universes colliding. Even a three-hour show wouldn’t do it justice.
But if this could happen in the comics, Marvel could surely adapt it for the big screen. Moreover, Scarlet Witch is an Avenger that’s also a mutant from the X-Men universe. Now that both titles are under the label, a crossover is definitely not off the books — but we wouldn’t want to give you false hope.