Will Dark Phoenix be the end of the X-Men as we know it? It sure looks that way. The problems faced by Fox’s mutant franchise, well, other than Deadpool or Logan, are well-documented and don’t need to be gone over again. It’s hardly the best face to put on leading up to the Disney deal and the Mouse House is unlikely to welcome those problems. So if this really is the beginning of the end for the X-Men, they’re going out by…rehashing a storyline they have already done, albeit badly.
Dark Phoenix finds the X-Men battling an apocalyptic, cosmic-powered Jean Grey (Sophie Turner), just as they did in the maligned X-Men: The Last Stand. Hey, you can’t blame director/producer Simon Kinberg for wanting to fix what he and Brett Ratner (Ha ha ha!) screwed up so badly the first time, but how are you going to convince audiences it’s worth it to pay twice for essentially the same story? That will be especially difficult with Marvel dropping bombs like Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame, and Spider-Man: Far From Home all around them. It’s just not a good look.
Anyway, much of the cast returns for this one, even Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, and Nicholas Hoult who all were on their way out after X-Men: Apocalypse. Jessica Chastain is the main newcomer, playing an unnamed alien shapeshifter we all assumed was Princess Lilandra of the Shi’ar.
Dark Phoenix hits theaters on June 7th.
