Considering Dark Phoenix is shaping up to be the final X-Men movie to come out of 20th Century Fox prior to the impending Disney acquisition, there’s an added pressure lingering over Simon Kinberg’s ensemble drama.
Be that as it may, Dark Phoenix is said to be much more realistic than previous installments, though we’d argue that that’s actually a surprising omission from Kinberg, given Fox’s 2019 blockbuster is adapting a cosmic, deeply nuanced adventure in “The Dark Phoenix Saga.”
Can it possibly live up to the sky-high expectations? We’ll have to reserve any judgment until summer 2019, but a new teaser image has arrived by way of 20th Century Fox’s Twitter feed which features some of the world’s most famous mutants: Professor Xavier (James McAvoy) uniting heroes Storm (Alexandra Shipp), Cyclops (Tye Sheridan), and Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee).
Chances are they’re all staring up at the face of evil – the face of Jean Grey (Sophie Turner), who is about to undergo a radical transformation next summer and become the Dark Phoenix we know and fear. Behind the scenes, writer-director Simon Kinberg is hopeful that Dark Phoenix will make amends for previous X-Men movies – particularly Apocalypse, which was quietly written off as a colossal (and expensive misfire) soon after release.
It’s no wonder Kinberg aims to introduce the beginning of a new chapter on June 7th, 2019, then. The question, really, is whether audience members and X-Men fans the world over will be receptive to this fresh start.
One way or another, it’s been a long and rocky road for Professor Xavier and his merry band of mutants, but Dark Phoenix is all set to drop from orbit on June 7th, 2019 – seven months after its initial release date.