Disney used part of their presentation at CinemaCon to showcaseDark Phoenix, which will officially conclude this version of the franchise. Disney recently finished up their merger with Fox, meaning that they’re in control of all the franchises that were under that roof, which includes theX-Men. Disney inheritedDark Phoenix, but they still intend to release it and give this version of the series the send-off it deserves. And, based on the reactions to the footage, this may well actually be a worthy conclusion to the long-running franchise.
Before digging into what was shown, let’s get one important detail out of the way. Even though it’s been highly suspected, it was confirmed on stage by Fox’s Emma Watts, who came out on stage to introduceDark Phoenix, that this will indeed be the swan song for theX-Men, at least in this iteration. Watts called it the “perfect send-off for our X-Men team.” That’s crystal clear. It’s also worth mentioning that Disney hadThe New Mutantson their release schedule at the event. Does that mean they’re going to release it beforeDark Phoenix? Or just dump it to a streaming service like Hulu? That remains to be seen.
As for the footage itself, it kicked off with a sequence that sees the coreX-Menteam going on a mission into space in order to save some stranded astronauts. Things go very wrong andJean Grey(Sophie Turner) is hit by a powerful cosmic force. She survives though and winds up with incredible power as a result. Once they’re back on Earth, Cyclops (Tye Sheridan) asks her, “Have you heard what the kids are calling you? Phoenix.” This then leads to a rather action-packed montage of footage.
We see Jean saying that bad things happen around her, but it “feels good.“Professor X(James McAvoy) then warns that Jean will kill them all. There were reportedly various action shots. A hallway fight and Magneto controlling a bunch of machine guns. There was a telling shot of Jessica Chastain’s mysterious villain talking to Jean, saying that this power destroyed everything it ever touched before finding her. Chastain’s identity has been kept very secretive up to this point and it doesn’t sound like they’re going to give this one away until the movie arrives.
Dark Phoenixmarks the directorial debut of Simon Kinberg, who has been a longtime writer and producer on the series. There were those who expected the movie was in trouble, as major reshoots were ordered and there had been lots of negative buzz behind the scenes. But the reaction to this footage, coupled with what was shown at WonderCon recently, offers up some up.Dark Phoenixis set to hit theaters on June 7. Be sure to check out some of the reactions to the footage from theDisneypresentation below.
