Though 2018 was supposed to be a huge year for the X-Men franchise, both Dark Phoenix and Josh Boone’s horror-tinged spinoff, The New Mutants, have been delayed, with the latter now expected to hit theaters on August 2nd, 2019 – 16 months later than first scheduled.
For Dark Phoenix, it’s a little different. While the Simon Kinberg-directed blockbuster was originally set to drop in November, the Powers That Be have delayed the cosmic adventure until February 14th, 2019, where it’ll open in close proximity to both Hellboy and M. Night Shyamalan’s Glass. That’s disappointing in and of itself, though the film apparently still needs a lot of work and will soon undergo significant reshoots.
What exactly needs to be fixed, however, is unclear, and as it turns out, not even the cast is too sure of what’s going on. Star Sophie Turner recently spoke about the additional bout of filming and had the following to share:
I think it’s just a few bits and bobs, reshoot-wise. To be honest, I don’t even know what we’re reshooting at the moment. So I couldn’t really tell you much about that one. All I know is that I’ll be back in Montreal at some point soon, and that the Valentine’s Day release date is quite a positive thing, because Black Panther got released on Valentine’s Day. So we’re keeping positive about it.
Due to a couple of infamous examples, such as Justice League, the idea of reshoots has become a cause for worry amongst fans – and understandably so. 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, pushing Dark Phoenix back to 2019 might not necessarily be the worst thing in the world, as it’ll give the production team time to get it polished and be the best it can be.
Besides, as Turner notes, February is the same corridor in which Black Panther made history ($699M domestic; $1.34 billion global), so let’s hope the actress is right in saying that X-Men: Dark Phoenix has the potential to make a big splash next year. Not as big a splash as T’Challa, mind you, but a splash nonetheless.