Simon Kinberg Will Direct X-MEN: DARK PHOENIX, Jessica Chastain Up For Villainous Role, and Returning Cast Confirmed
Fox has pretty much locked down the director and cast for X-Men: The Dark Phoenix! Deadline reports that Simon Kinberg will direct the film. He's been a writer and producer on all of the X-Men films over the years and now he'll have his chance to direct one. This will be his directorial debut. I hope he doesn't screw it up because the pressure is on!
It's also been confirmed that Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Nicholas Hoult, Alexandra Shipp, Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan, and Kodi Smit-McPhee will all reprise their roles from the previous films.
The report then goes on to say that Jessica Chastain is in talks to take on the role of the main villain in the story, Shi’ar Empress Lilandra. She was created by Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum. She was the Empress of the Shi'ar Imperium and one of the women who shared a psychic link with Charles Xavier. Lilandra also has peak human strength, speed, agility, endurance and reflexes and limited telepathic powers. She also wears body armor.
Chastain seems like a great fit for the character so it'd be great if she got the role. Looks like Fox is almost ready to get this thing into production. Dark Pheonix is such a great storyline so I hope that Kinberg and his team do it justice.
Fox will release the X-Men: Dark Phoenix on November 2nd, 2018.