Bryan Singer first teased the Dark Phoenix Saga in X2: X-Men United, but when he decided to take the helm of Superman Returns, that storyline was botched in a major way in The Last Stand. However, with Days of Future Past wiping out the events of the previous movies, the filmmaker has another chance to adapt the beloved story, and it sounds like we’ll start to see some clues about that in X-Men: Apocalypse.
Before we get to that though, X-Men: Apocalypse writer and producer Simon Kinberg had this to say about the possibility of adapting the storyline somewhere down the line.
“I think everything that hasn’t been told from First Class and Days of Future Past is up for grabs going forward, so it would absolutely be a story we could tell in a different way. We definitely explore how powerful [Jean Grey] is in this movie, and that can be something that is empowering and something that is dangerous.”
Bryan Singer, meanwhilem elaborated on those comments by mentioning that he would “possibly” be interested in redoing “the full Phoenix story” in a future X-Men movie, and indicated that we’ll get some hints about Jean Grey possibly going down that route in X-Men: Apocalypse, as “the idea of that is brewing within her” and we “may find a piece of that in this movie.”
It remains to be seen whether or not X-Men: Apocalypse really delves into this storyline and if a future instalment of the franchise decides to try it again, but it’s a story which deserves to be done right, so here’s hoping.
