The latest mainline film in the X-Men franchise, X-Men: Dark Phoenix, has now wrapped. Despite principal production having finished though, we still know surprisingly little about the movie. That being said, the title tells us quite a bit to start with, as Dark Phoenix will tackle the iconic comic book storyline of Jean Grey’s descent into darkness, and will hopefully prove to be a much more successful attempt than X-Men: The Last Stand.Â
Now, thanks to a new report from That Hashtag Show, we might just know the exact incident that causes Sophie Turner’s telepathic mutant to turn to the dark side. THS’ sources allege that Dark Phoenix will feature a sequence where Jean attempts to unleash her powers but fails to control them – killing a long-running character in the process. Though the report didn’t note who exactly will meet their maker, the character in question is definitely one of the four main cast members of 2011’s X-Men: First Class. So, that’s Professor X (James McAvoy), Magneto (Michael Fassbender), Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) and Beast (Nicholas Hoult).
Who could it be, though? Well, from a behind the scenes point of view, all four performers might be looking to move away from the franchise at this point and as far as the plot goes, being responsible for the death of any of these characters would be enough to push Jean over the edge.
If we had to put money on it, Mystique seems like a fairly safe bet. Rumours have persisted for a while that Lawrence has grown bored of donning the character’s blue body paint. Plus, her statement about returning for Dark Phoenix suggested that she was only looking to do the one more X-Men movie.
Whoever it is, this death will definitely complicate the franchise’s already muddled timeline even further. After all, each one of these characters were, of course, alive in the original trilogy, while two were shown in the post-Days of Future Past future and at least Professor X was around in Logan’s dark continuity. Deadpool had it right – these timelines are so confusing!
X-Men: Dark Phoenix arrives in theaters November 2nd, 2018.
