2018 was set to be a massive year for the X-Men franchise, with three movies scheduled to hit screens over the 12 month period. As it happened, though, clearly some major rethinking went on behind the scenes at 20th Century Fox and both The New Mutants and X-Men: Dark Phoenix were sent back before the cameras for extensive reshoots.
Now, the latter title is intended to arrive next February. In the meantime, it’s set to undergo reshoots either in the summer or early fall. While speaking to Entertainment Weekly, director Simon Kinberg played down rumors that this spells trouble for the production, explaining that it’s “normal” procedure for blockbuster filmmaking nowadays.
“It’s normal for all these big movies now. We’ll go back when we can get all those actors together, and then it will give me enough time to have it ready and looking perfect.”
Kinberg isn’t wrong there. Due to a couple of infamous examples, such as Justice League, the idea of reshoots has become a cause for worry amongst fans. However, plenty of recent films that underwent them have gone on to be critically acclaimed and hugely popular. Just look at Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
The delay of the release date certainly doesn’t help the public perception, though. Still, like the longtime stalwart of the X-Men universe says, pushing Dark Phoenix back to next year was a good move in the long run as it’ll give the production team time to get it polished and be the best it can be.
As it happens, the reshoots are reported to be retooling the film’s third act, with the cost of this additional bit of production coming in at under $10 million. Considering that the initial shoot ended off below budget, that’s not too costly. Now, we’ll just have to wait and see if the extra effort paid off when X-Men: Dark Phoenix soars into cinemas on February 14th, 2019.