UPDATE: Several more photos from the film have been released by EW and can be seen in the gallery down below.
The Phoenix has awoken.
Entertainment Weekly has today unveiled a fiery first peek at Sophie Turner’s Jean Grey as she’ll appear in X-Men: Dark Phoenix, the star-studded 2018 blockbuster coming by way of Simon Kinberg (The Twilight Zone).
Held up as the “most emotional, pathos-driven” X-Men movie of Fox’s ongoing prequel saga, Dark Phoenix takes place roughly 10 years after the events of Apocalypse, at a time when our core group of mutants – namely Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), Beast (Nicholas Hoult), Storm (Alexandra Shipp), Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee), and Quicksilver (Evan Peters) – are celebrated as national heroes. But there’s trouble afoot.
Between Charles Xavier’s (James McAvoy) inflated ego – hell, he even lands on the cover of Time magazine – and the X-Jet being at the mercy of a potentially deadly solar flare, Dark Phoenix steers Fox’s franchise into relatively new, cosmic territory.
Here’s what Simon Kinberg told EW:
Pride is starting to get the better of him [Charle Xavier], and he is pushing the X-Men to more extreme missions.
And so, after a rescue mission goes awry, Jean Grey is blasted by a huge solar fire – but it’s the aftermath that’s the real concern. Upon returning to Earth, Sophie Turner’s mutant soon realizes that a “malevolent, power-hungry new force” is beginning to stir. Its name? The Phoenix.
Meanwhile, when asked about the film’s overall tone, McAvoy revealed:
This is probably the most emotional X-Men we’ve done and the most pathos-driven. There’s a lot of sacrifice and a lot of suffering.
Jean Grey’s fiery transformation undoubtedly thrusts a wedge between the X-Men, and that’s something that will bring a real sense of drama to Dark Phoenix. At least, that’s according to Turner:
It’s about the butterfly effect of this thing happening. What happens when the person you love the most falls into darkness?
Following on the heels of The New Mutants (April 13th) and David Leitch’s untitled Deadpool sequel (June 1st), X-Men: Dark Phoenix is expected to light up theaters on November 2nd, 2018.
