New Story Details Revealed For X-MEN: DARK PHOENIX and Two New Mutant Characters Revealed
The first trailer for X-Men: Dark Phoenix recently dropped and it was met with a lot of mixed reactions. Some people liked what they saw, while other people didn’t. One thing that the trailer makes clear is that the story revolves around Jean Grey’s journey to becoming one of the most powerful and dangerous mutants to ever exist.
Thanks to director Simon Kinberg and actress Sophie Turner, we now have some new details regarding the film to share with you. These details involve Jessica Chastain’s mysterious villainous character'; the relationship between Jean and Xavier and how that effects the other characters; and the reveal of two new mutant characters.
Here’s what Kinberg had to say to IGN about Chastain’s character and how she is drawn to Jean’s power. But, he still won’t reveal who exactly she is. He wants to keep a shroud of mystery around her character:
“She is from, let’s say, not our planet, her character. I’ll keep it relatively mysterious but it is a cosmic story in a way that is extraterrestrial, which is something we’ve never done in the X-Men movies before but is obviously something that is integral to the Dark Phoenix story so I felt we couldn’t’ do what we did on X3 and ignore that.
We had to actually embrace it. So there’s a fair amount that takes place in space, and the inciting incident that starts to turn Jean, let’s say, dark and fill her with this power that she can’t control happens in space. And then there are forces from space that come to Earth because of that.”
A lot of fans have speculated on who Chastain could be playing in the film. Some have said that she could be a she’s a member of the Shi’ar, while others think she could be different take on Mastermind, who is a character from the comics that uses his powers to manipulate Jean in order to gain access to the Hellfire club. When was asked about this in an interview, he said that she’s not Mastermind, but instead a combination of several different characters from the comics:
"I will say that Jessica’s character is not Mastermind but there are elements of the way Mastermind manipulates Jean that Jessica’s character does employ. For me, as you’ll see, that Jessica’s character has elements of a few different characters from the comics.”
He goes on to say:
“It’s an interesting one and I don’t want to spill too much about it but basically Jessica’s character is very interested in this power that I’ve kind of acquired and this cosmic force that I have and she kind of wants that force to use it for her own — she has her own intentions with it and she kind of wants to use that. And she nurtures me in a way to make me kind of trust her.”
Turner and Kinberg go on to talk about the complicated relationship between Charles Xavier’s and Jean and how that will play a big role in the story. One idea that will be focused on is how at some point in Jean’s life Xavier did something to her that leads to the rest of the X-Men and Magneto to hate him. It’s these actions that are said to drive Jean to lash out. But Kinberg goes on to explain that there a a good reason for Xavier’s actions:
“People in the movie start to blame him for that not realizing what’s actually happening to her. So, yes, he did some things in the past that one could see as dubious but he did them for a good purpose, from his point of view, and so as Jean is losing control and doing these sometimes horrific certainly destructive things, for lack of an explanation for many of the characters because they don’t understand this larger cosmic entity, they are looking at Charles as the one responsible for it when in fact the movie sort of operates on two planes.
It operates as a very personal, intimate story about Jean and her past and her struggle with her powers, and it also operates as this much larger intergalactic story with aliens involved that Charles is not responsible for.”
We also have a couple new photos here that were revealed. One of which shows off two new mutants in the story. Those mutant characters are Red Lotus (Andrew Stehlin) and Selene (Kota Eberhardt). This will be the first time the two obscure characters show up in the X-Men film franchise. We don’t know anything about their roles in the story, but like the rest of the X-Men team, I’m sure they are going to find themselves up against their greatest threat yet as Jean Grey embarks on a journey of dark self-discovery and destruction.
Does any of this new information get you anymore excited about seeing this movie?