There are three X-Men movies coming in 2018 and of them, X-Men: Dark Phoenix represents the next installment in the mainline series of team-up films. It's also likely the first movie that'll see Marvel's mutants head to space. And it's about time!

When visiting the set of X-Men: Apocalypse in 2015 director Bryan Singer added to his promise from a few years earlier: that Twentieth Century Fox and the creative team behind the franchise would delve deep into Marvel Comics lore and pull from stories fans love, no matter how other-worldly they may be. Audiences are beyond ready to accept the less grounded stories from the source material. Referencing Guardians of the Galaxy, Singer said that he could even take the X-Men into cosmic territory next.

When rumors that another new X-Men movie would shoot in Montreal this year for release in 2018 became reality, the previous reports and quotes hinting at the X-Men: Apocalypse followup adapting The Dark Phoenix Saga (again) also became true. And it's all but certain at this point. There's unexplained alien tech in the last movie, after all, and the codename for this movie was "Supernova" before its official title was revealed.

Producer Hutch Parker also referenced Guardians of the Galaxy last week when we chatted with him about the home video release of Logan. Of next year's three movies, he'll be producing and focusing on X-Men: Dark Phoenix. Parker doesn't shy away from the reality of mixed to negative responses to X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men: Apocalypse - the two movies that explored the Phoenix being previously - and he says his team must be "bold" going forward.

X-Men Legends - Dark Phoenix

You’re working on Dark Phoenix next and we saw a major glimpse of Phoenix in the last movie, Apocalypse. And of course we saw a different version of Phoenix back in X-Men: The Last Stand. What are you guys hoping to do differently with [the character in] the next movie?

Hutch Parker: Quite a bit. Again, I can’t really speak to anything specifically but I think the challenge as offered by all the films we’ve mentioned is very - we’re very aware of the challenge that those movies pose and what it sort of demands of us as storytellers mining, again, one of the great comic runs in The Dark Phoenix Saga. Our hope and expectation is to try and do something that feels different, that takes the audience into a different tone and a different sense of cinematic style that is appropriately suited to the story we’re telling. So I’m trying to answer your question without giving anything away.

[Laughs] I got you.

Hutch Parker: But we are committed to that and know that it’s not as simple as picking up where we left off in anyway. We actually have to be more bold [sic] and more inventive than that.

You mentioned Guardians. Hutch, are you ready to get cosmic with this stuff?

Hutch Parker: [Laughs] That is certainly a possibility. That is certainly a possibility. Yes.

How could they not? With Cable coming into the fold with at least five movies already being planned for Josh Brolin - who was recently cast as the character - the franchise will definitely be embracing time-travel again (a way to link the upcoming films together). But Cable also represents the series finally focusing back on the Summers family since he's the future son of young Cyclops, who was recast as Tye Sheridan in Apocalypse. This could also mean more of Summers' family could be explored should the X-Men go to space since Cyclops' dad of course becomes a space pirate and leads the Starjammers in many stories involving the Phoenix and the alien race who worships it (the Shi'ar Empire).

More: Unresolved Plotlines From Logan

In the near future, a weary Logan cares for an ailing Professor X in a hide out on the Mexican border. But Logan’s attempts to hide from the world and his legacy are up-ended when a young mutant arrives, being pursued by dark forces.

James Mangold directs Logan from a screenplay by Michael Green and Scott Frank & James Mangold and astory by David James Kelly and James Mangold. Logan is produced by: Hutch Parker, Simon Kinberg, Lauren Shuler Donner, and stars Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Richard E. Grant, Boyd Holbrook, Stephen Merchant, and Dafne Keen.

Logan is available on Digital HD and Blu-ray, DVD and 4K Ultra HD.

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