If there are more X-Men movies to come, franchise star Sophie Turner would love to be part of them. Turner most recently played Jean Grey in 2019's Dark Phoenix, her second time playing the character after playing Jean Grey in 2016's X-Men: Apocalypse. The future of the X-Men franchise is currently up in the air, with it likely being folded into the MCU going forward. But that should be par for the course for Turner, whose character also has a questionable future going forward.
In Dark Phoenix, Jean Grey's villainous alter ego, Phoenix, emerges, causing her to clash with the X-Men. While she's one of the main antagonists of the film, she redeems herself towards the end, taking Vuk into outer space and killing her. The fate of Jean Grey, however, is somewhat ambiguous. She fades away into a burst of energy appearing as a phoenix, with a phoenix popping back up in the film's last scene, inviting the idea the character survived and could appear again down the road.
That's a possibility Turner would be in favor of, as she told Variety. In a video chat seen on Twitter, Turner said "I don't even know what the deal is, whether Disney wants to continue on the X-Men journey. I would always be down to go back to that character and that cast and that experience... we had the best time on those movies. I would kill to go back." Hearing that Turner wants to return is a boost to the spirits of X-Men fans, there just needs to be a story and way to naturally incorporate her back into the cast.
Of course, the operative words of her statement might have come closer to the beginning. When Disney first purchased 21st Century Fox, the X-Men were seen as one of the most significant creative assets to change hands in that acquisition. The reviews of Dark Phoenix were not positive though, nor were the box office numbers, some of the worst in the history of the franchise; it didn't even win the box office on its first weekend, losing out to The Secret Life of Pets 2. Disney and Marvel will likely decide to make more movies involving the X-Men, but the failures of Dark Phoenix may provide the studio with an opportunity to reboot the franchise or take it in a new direction.
Still, Sophie Turner is a big star. Her time in the X-Men universe has only further catapulted her fame after breaking out as a star on Game of Thrones. While she is starring in a show on the new Quibi streaming service, her list of future film projects is tiny. Despite the struggles of Dark Phoenix, if Turner wants to return to the franchise, there should be no hesitation in letting her.
Source: Variety/Twitter