The fascinating troubles behind the scenes forDark Phoenixcontinue to unfold. The final mainX-Menmovie, at least in this version of the franchise, hit theaters last weekend and it hasn’t been going well so far. It’s been a bomb at the box office and we’ve been hearing bits and pieces about what went on that led to this result. Now, we have word from star Tye Sheridan that the movie’s ending originally contained the shape-shifting alien race known as the Skrulls, who also just so happened to be inCaptain Marvel.
Tye Sheridan, who plays Cyclops in theFirst Classversion of the cast, was recently a guest on a podcast. Prior to the release ofDark Phoenix, it was well known that the movie had to undergo massive reshoots, largely to address issues in the third act. What were those issues exactly? Well, it turns out it would have been far too similar toCaptain Marvel, which would have been extremely problematic, for various reasons. Here’s what Sheridan had to say about it.
“It’s really hard for me to remember what the ending of this movie is. [laughs] Originally, it was scripted that Charles and Scott go to the U.N. because, man, I’m totally going to mess this up, they go to the U.N. because they’re going to attempt to tell the President that, ‘Hey, we’re under attack by aliens, and they’ve now capturedJean Grey.’ Or, you know, whatever it is that we’re going to tell him. And then Jean comes down in the front of the U.N., and causes… there is this huge battle between the guards at the U.N. and Jean Grey, and all the guards turn out to be Skrulls. And then Jean and Scott are, Scott is fighting Skrulls in the fountain. He gets thrown into the fountain in front of the U.N. And then Jean comes down and basically fights all of theSkrullsoff, and then blasts back off into space. [She] basically says goodbye to Scott and Charles. And then it’s all over, I guess.”
Disneycompleted their merger with Fox in March.Dark Phoenixwas in the works long before that, but so was the merger. SinceCaptain Marvelfalls under the Disney umbrella, it’s obvious that the studio wouldn’t want two movies from different universes coming out in the same year to feature the same villains. It seems highly likely this is why the movie ended up getting such extensive reshoots.
It was also revealed by Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy in a previous interview that the original ending was far too similar to another recently released comic book movie. At the time, they wouldn’t say which one, but all signs pointed towardCaptain Marvel. That has now all but proved to be true.
Brie Larson’sCaptain Marvelis set to be a big part of Marvel’s future. So it makes sense for Disney to prioritize that property. As of this writing,Dark Phoenixhas grossed just $143 million globally and it’s expected to take a big dive in its second weekend. It’s predicted that the movie will lose approximately $100 million for the studio. Safe to say, theX-Menprobably deserved better than this mess for their finale. This news was first reported byCinemaBlend.
