New X-Men: Dark Phoenix Photos Tease Romance, Death And Jessica Chastain’s Villain

Though the future of the X-Men franchise is in doubt, now that Disney have purchased 20th Century Fox and likely plan to merge the mutants with the MCU, there’s still at least one more mainline X-Men movie to come before that happens. Of course, we’re talking about Dark Phoenix, which we got our first look at last month and is once again making headlines, as some new images have arrived that further tease what we can expect.

The four stills seen below come from the latest issue of Empire Magazine and reveal three moments from the movie, as well as providing us with another shot of Sophie Turner as Jean Grey. Speaking of which, it’s pretty clear at this point that Turner’s version of Phoenix will be portrayed as a nude, fiery-skinned entity. I guess now that Jessica Lawrence is wearing a costume as Mystique, one of the other characters has to go without clothes instead, right?

We also get a look Turner as the ordinary Jean Grey, revealing that she’ll share a romantic moment with Tye Sheridan’s Cyclops in Dark Phoenix. We know that the pair are destined to become an item in the future, so it looks like this film will bring their chemistry to the fore, after the couple shared a few tender moments in X-Men: Apocalypse. 

Another photo gives us what looks to be a tense scene between Professor X and Jessica Chastain’s villain. James McAvoy’s telepath seems to be terror-stricken by the mystery antagonist, and he has good reason to be. All signs are pointing towards Chastain playing the shapeshifting Skrull empress, roughly taking the place of Lilandra of the Shi’ar from the comic book arc.

Finally, the most interesting photo has to be the alarming shot of Magneto being garroted with a rope. It’s been revealed that one of the four surviving characters from X-Men: First Class – Professor X, Magneto, Beast and Mystique – will die in Dark Phoenix and this image sure does hint that it will be Michael Fassbender’s anti-villain to kick the bucket. However, it’s likely that such a massive surprise wouldn’t be spoiled like this, so we imagine all is not what it seems.

Regardless, all will be revealed when X-Men: Dark Phoenix hits theaters on November 2nd, 2018.