For a star-studded tentpole that’s been hailed as the “biggest” X-Men movie ever attempted, all has gone strangely quiet on the Dark Phoenix front as of late.
The ongoing radio silence likely has something to do with 20th Century Fox’s decision to delay Simon Kinberg’s cosmic epic into 2019 – February, 2019, to be specific – and we understand Dark Phoenix won’t be present at San Diego Comic-Con this year, either.
But that doesn’t mean the ensemble drama has slipped into the depths of obscurity; as spotted by ComicBook.com, it appears some theater merchandise for X-Men: Dark Phoenix has escaped onto the interwebs (see below), and it draws our attention to three of the franchise’s most prominent players – Beast (Nicholas Hoult), Jean Grey (Sophie Turner), and Cyclops (Tye Sheridan). There’s even a shot of the famous Blackbird airship thrown in for good measure.
As you’ll see from the video above, the team are clearly sporting their retro-inspired yellow costumes for X-Men: Dark Phoenix, which we know will take place in the 1990s and herald the moment when Jean Grey becomes imbued with near-limitless power after being exposed to a massive solar flare.
Her subsequent transformation places the entire mutant community on red alert, though the finer details of Dark Phoenix‘s cosmic plot are being kept under wraps at the moment. Mind you, if this collection of merch proves to be accurate, then the Powers That Be are clearly on the verge of blowing the dust off their hard-wired marketing machine. And not a moment too soon.
Regardless, 20th Century Fox has slated X-Men: Dark Phoenix for release on Valentine’s Day, 2019 – the date once occupied by the long-gestating Gambit spinoff. And once we hear more about it, we’ll be sure to let you know.