Dark Phoenix Fan Trailer Uses X-Men: The Last Stand Footage

Screen Rant

Fan Recreates Dark Phoenix Trailer Using X-Men: The Last Stand Footage

By Cooper Hood

Published Sep 29, 2018

The first trailer for Dark Phoenix has been recreated by a fan using only footage from 2006's X-Men: The Last Stand, and it works perfectly.

The first trailer for Dark Phoenix has been recreated with footage from X-Men: The Last Stand. Fox's X-Men franchise has been running for nearly two decades, and it hasn't lasted this long without a few reboots, spinoffs, and continuity breaks. The studio attempted to right the universe by resetting the timeline with X-Men: Days of Future Past, and are quickly retracing their old steps. X-Men: Apocalypse introduced most of the characters from the original X-Men movie but with new young actors playing them, and the plan for Dark Phoenix is to take another shot at adapting The Dark Phoenix Saga storyline from the comics.

Brett Ratner directed the first attempt at bringing the story to the big screen with The Last Stand, but Simon Kinberg and Zak Penn were responsible for the script. Twelve years later and Kinberg is now in the director's chair for Dark Phoenix, and is trying to properly adapt the story. The first trailer arrived recently, and many were quick to note just how similar it appears to the previous adaptation.

Any naysayers to these similarities may just need to check out the latest video from Marvel News Desk to see how closely the two films resemble each other. The outlet recreated the Dark Phoenix trailer using footage from The Last Stand, and the results speak for themselves. This fan trailer is able to replicate almost every story beat and shot from the actual trailer. Check it out below.

Since showing the similarities was exactly the point of the video, it's easy to say it did its job. The young Jean Grey origin story is shown, a major death in the X-Men family, Charles' manipulation of Jean's powers, Magneto's mutant haven, and the divide between Magneto and Professor X are all once again part of this "new" adaptation. That said, there are obvious differences, like the film's placement in the timeline, the characters that are and aren't involved, and more.

At the end of the day, these comparisons are completely unavoidable for Dark Phoenix. For better or worse, everything it does will be compared to what Fox did with the story last time in 2006. Kinberg wants to bring the cosmic side into Dark Phoenix through the unlocking of the Phoenix, and by introducing Jessica Chastain's mysterious character. Whether or not he's actually successful in bringing these elements into the storyline remain to be seen, as the trailer only briefly teases them. Lucky for Kinberg and the entire production (which is currently undergoing reshoots), Dark Phoenix has just been delayed four months. In that time, maybe some additional differences between the two adaptations will emerge, but it won't be until fans see the final product that they know whether or not Dark Phoenix is just X-Men: The Last Stand all over again.