X-Men: Dark Phoenix
Is Jessica Chastain the realDark Phoenix ? The late X - Men moving-picture show is render away a surprising number of wrench in its trailer ( thelatest tormentor confirmed Mystique ’s decease ) , but one whodunit is still yet to be discover - the identity of the theatrical role played by Jessica Chastain .
It was view something of a coup when the honour - winning , Hollywood A - lister plow sign up on toDark Phoenix , and speculation was rampant regarding who she would portray . The fact that the picture is an version ofThe Dark Phoenix Saga- one of the bedrock storylines inX - Menhistory - means there ’s no shortage of possibilities .
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While there are plenty of obvious candidates fromX - Menlore , there are now hints that Chastain’sDark Phoenixcharacter may be quite a bit different than what people are bear - a manifestation of the Phoenix Force itself .
Jessica Chastain Was Originally A Skrull - But Not Anymore
When Jessica Chastain was originally swan as a powerful foreign entity inDark Phoenix , many sports fan assumed she ’d be playing Lilandra , the Empress of the Shi’ar Empire and a vital player in the originalDark Phoenix Sagacomics . However , former reports indicated Chastain was actually play the leader of the Skrulls , one of the most storeyed foreign resister in Marvel history who have been in something of a cinematic limbo due to their rights being separate between Disney and Fox - though they ’re showing up in a major way in the upcomingCaptain Marvel .
Dark Phoenixhas long been considered something of a troubled yield . It ’s technically a sequel toX - Men : Apocalypse ; that film , directed by Bryan Singer , was meet with middling reviews and underperformed considerably at the box berth . Now , longtime franchise author and manufacturer Simon Kinberg is taking the director ’s chairwoman for the first meter for a second swing atDark Phoenix ; the first big screen version of the story , Brett Ratner’sX - human : The Last Stand , is widely vituperate .
However , it ’s not been plain sailing . Dark Phoenix’srelease day of the month has been force back multiple clock time , andthe moving picture has undergo monumental reshoots , all while the Disney / Fox merger looms large of the world of theX - gentleman . It ’s widely assumed theX - Menwill be reboot and get together the MCU once the uniting is finalized , so this is almost certainly the final film set in the universe install by 2000 ’s firstX - Menfilm .
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There have been reports that , in amongst all the reshoots , theSkrulls have been absent fromDark Phoenix . Certainly , there ’s been no mention of them in any of the photographic film ’s promotional material or trailers . Whatever the reason - it ’s possible their very unlike role inCaptain Marvel , which releases a few month earlier , was grounds for pause - that go forth Chastain ’s theatrical role in an rum position : what are her motif now ? Chastain has been see on the rigid ofDark Phoenix ’s reshoots , meaning her scenes are some of those affected , suggested her character is being align .
Is Jessica Chastain The Phoenix Force?
There ’s ample grounds to back up the theory that Chastain is actually playing an facial expression of the entity known as the Phoenix Force , a cosmic being of almost unthinkable power that has a primal connective to Jean Grey . Chastain ’s scenes in the trailer are only with Jean , where she appears as something of a devil on her shoulder , push her to do things she does n’t need to and testing the limits of her powers . This would match as the end of the energy personnel .
It ’s fairly mind - boggle that a character write as a Skrull loss leader could be transformed into something as elemental and divine as the Phoenix Force , but the film has been bear on back and remixed so many times that anything is potential . It would also , quite honestly , make for a more compelling quality for Chastain . She is one of the most gifted actress of her generation , and playing on the dual panorama of the Phoenix Force - a powerful cosmic entity , but also a manifestation of something consanguineous toJean ’s genial illness- is a suitably complex part for someone of her talent .
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It would also wait on to streamline what could have been an overly complicate story . TheDark Phoenix Sagais beloved part because of its grand orbit ; in many ways , it ’s more of a place opera house than a superhero story . However , it ’s also a story that was told over several twelvemonth in the comics , giving it enough space and time to build to its opulent climax . There ’s plainly no style a two - hour motion picture could right adapt every aspect of that narration . There ’s also , to this point in time , really no precedent for stranger in theX - Menmovies , and it may have only been a bridge too far for this iteration of the franchise . Kinberg has said in interviews he drew impenetrable inspiration fromLogan , a moving-picture show that divest the titular mutant of virtually all superhero housing , telling a gritty , grounded write up that breathed new life into an senesce place . Perhaps Kinberg realized that an internalization of Jean ’s torment was more in line with the enfranchisement ’s flight than malefic build - change over aliens .
Page 2 of 2:Why This Would Be Good For Dark Phoenix
Could Jessica Chastain As Phoenix Save Dark Phoenix?
It ’s in no way controversial to sayexpectations forDark Phoenixare comparatively downhearted , certainly byX - Menmovie standards . There are multiple factors kick in to this spirit . X - man : Apocalypsefelt improbably stale next to innovational sensations likeLoganandDeadpool . Kinberg has no prior directing experience , and the massive reshoots would seem to indicate he did a lot of learning on the job . The X - Men cinema franchise is also incredibly long in the tooth - Fox has been regularly zigzag out X - films for 19 years . Perhaps most significant of all is the looming Disney / Fox unification , which will almost certainly mean the end of this cinematic version of theX - man , give or takea few moreDeadpoolsequels . Dark Phoenixcan’t help but finger like the last gasp of an superannuated model for these sort of movies . It will likely have to be prominent to overcome that stigma .
The promiscuous way forDark Phoenixto manage that effort would be to defy expectations . Part of the failure ofX - Men : Apocalypsewas how perfectly predictable it was and how it stewed in nostalgia for the enfranchisement ’s early installments , to the decimal point that it ended with a line for origin recitation of the 2000 film ’s final scene . IfDark Phoenixis going to bring home the bacon , it need to demoralise what viewers have come up to expect from the mainlineX - Menfilms in the kind of way that bothLoganandDeadpoolmanaged . It call for to make big , bluff choices with its characters and avoid the form of eternal CGI brawls that funny Good Book movies fall back on when they do n’t have anything to say .
IfDark Phoenixhas an veritable forcefulness , it ’s the cast . James McAvoy , Michael Fassbender , and Jennifer Lawrence have anchor the last three mainlineX - Menfilms with rock - solid performances , and the the likes of of Sophie Turner and Tye Sheridan have made the young mutant students almost as compelling . But Chastain is arguably the most vivacious talent in the film , and using her considerable ability to undersell what citizenry are used to seeing from yet another moustache - twirling great bad would be a brilliant way for Kinberg to put a bow on this massively of import franchise that has made its name on upending audience arithmetic mean for almost two decades .