X-Men: Dark Phoenix Action Shot Finds Magneto On The Brink

Is Magneto about to meet his maker in X-Men: Dark Phoenix?

That’s the big X-Men rumor circulating online, and this newly-unveiled action shot from Empire Magazine will only add fuel to the fire. Unveiled alongside a new still image for Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald – another fantasy-fuelled sequel set to dominate multiplexes in 2018 – this pic in question finds Erik Lehnscherr surrounded by armed goons.

Visibly wounded and looking a little worse for wear, Michael Fassbender’s malevolent mutant appears to have had a run-in with the Dark Phoenix (check out the nasty burn marks on each hand), and has been left unconscious on a pile of rubble. This is merely conjecture, of course, as both Fox and writer-director Simon Kinberg have been playing their cards pretty close to the vest.

Still, it has been confirmed that X-Men: Dark Phoenix will herald the moment when Jean Grey begins to develop incredible (and uncontrollable?) abilities, thrusting the rest of the X-gang into peril. Perhaps Fassbender’s anti-hero will be the first to bite the bullet?

Either way, front and center is Game of Thrones alum Sophie Turner, who plays this generation’s Jean Grey. Set some 10 years after the events of X-Men: Apocalypse, Dark Phoenix kicks into gear when the young mutant is blasted by a stray solar flare, igniting a “malevolent, power-hungry new force” within the unsuspecting Jean.

Here’s what Turner had to say about that dramatic character change, courtesy of Empire:

It’s about duality, darkness and light, this sense of her being a completely other person and struggling with that…

Beyond The New Mutants and Deadpool 2, X-Men: Dark Phoenix is poised to take flight on November 2nd, 2018, and when it does, it’ll completely upend Fox’s wildly successful prequel saga.