It turns out Sophie Turner had no clue a Dark Phoenix story was in the works when she signed on to X-Men: Apocalypse. The final X-Men outing will hit theaters on June 7, and sees a slew of familiar faces returning to their respective roles. It will follow the team as they try to save one of their own, Jean Grey (Turner), who begins to develop incredible powers after being hit by a cosmic force during a mission in space, eventually transforming her into the Dark Phoenix. The film will be a culmination of 19 years worth of X-Men films from Fox.
Unfortunately for the film itself, the road to release has been a turbulent one, especially after Disney acquired the rights to the X-Men franchise earlier this year from Fox. The acquisition had many fans wondering if Disney would reboot the franchise under its rightful Marvel Studios umbrella, but that won't be happening until much later down the line for the Mouse House. Until then, Disney has reformatted the marketing around the upcoming superhero film to hopefully bolster excitement while also turning the audience's attention to the epic finale that awaits them come June.
Much of the excitement for the film stems from the popularity of the Dark Phoenix comics, and a lot of the cast is excited to end the franchise on such a gripping and emotional storyline. Turner spoke with Screen Rant about the film, and how she originally had no idea that it was even a thought in someone's head when she joined X-Men: Apocalypse:
No, not at all. I never knew. You know, they had The Last Stand and so I just kind of assumed that it was done and over with. But I was really excited when they told me because in The Last Stand, the Dark Phoenix storyline was a subplot and in this it's the main plot and it being one of the most loved comic books in the X-Men world, it definitely felt right to do it again. I was so excited.
As beloved as the Dark Phoenix storyline is, director Simon Kinberg unfortunately had to cut parts of the comic book story from the film. Ultimately, he wanted to keep the focus on Jean and her emotional and intimate character arc. Considering this will be the final X-Men film for awhile, it makes sense to keep the narrative's focus on one of the franchise's core characters. What's difficult is trying to keep the energy alive and thriving before the movie premieres. The film is projected to make around $50 million in its first three days, marking it as the lowest X-Men debut ever. Though the projection isn't solid, it's unlikely the film will gross more.
During a year that's already had a fair dose of action-packed superhero blockbusters, it's unfortunate that Dark Phoenix's odds aren't looking too great. Even with this being the case, it's nice that the cast and crew are still maintaining a positive attitude about their final outing together as the X-Men. Hopefully they carry the story out with as big of a bang as fans of the original comic are hoping to see in Dark Phoenix.
