Its a simple story, more or less: Girl meets boy, girls mutant powers multiply to galaxy-eating levels, girl turns evil and glow-y. But telling the saga of Dark Phoenix, centered on the corruption of X-Men member Jean Grey, has somehow always been a fraught task. Even in the original comic-book version, writer Chris Claremont and artist John Byrne ended up reworking their ending at the last minute when Jim Shooter, then Marvels editor-in-chief, argued that Grey couldnt go unpunished after committing genocide against an entire planet which, to be fair, is a solid point. 2006s X-Men: The Last Stand took a half-hearted stab at adapting the storyline, but made it one plot among many, pleasing no one and nearly killing the franchise along with some of its most popular characters.
Which brings us to Dark Phoenix, the final entry in the current cinematic X-Men saga. Though the movie is facing widespread critical skepticism, it is at least a more robust attempt at telling the story than its predecessor, with Sophie Turners Jean Grey at its core. Screenwriter/director Simon Kinberg, a longtime veteran of the franchise (he actually co-wrote The Last Stand), shared some wisdom on the making of the movie and the past and future of X-Men.
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Even before Disney purchased Fox during the films production, reclaiming the X-Men characters for Marvel Studios, Dark Phoenix was expected to end the current franchise, which soft-rebooted with 2011s X-Men: First Class. I thought it was the probably the last chance to get the First Class cast together again, says Kinberg. This movie felt like the natural climax. and I did assume that there would eventually be another version of the X-Men.
Sophie Turner has mentioned being nervous about taking the title role in a big franchise, but she kept it to herself at the time. At a lunch with Kinberg before shooting began, he walked Turner through how the role would cover a lot of ground psychologically, in scenes where shes acting against the likes of Michael Fassbender, James MacAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence and Jessica Chastain. And I was like, are you up for it? says Kinberg. She looked me in the eyes, and she was like, 100 percent.'
Kinberg points out that the overall X-Men franchise will be remembered as the beginning of a new wave of superhero movies. The first movie was a very serious approach to telling these stories, treating them as seriously as anyone treats drama, he says. Starting this franchise in Auschwitz [with a young Magneto] was a very bold, and grounded, groundbreaking thing to do. And I think the seriousness of purpose with which [director Bryan Singer] approached the casting and the making of the initial X-Men movies rippled through everything that followed, where this genre has become the most popular dominant genre in cinema. Itll be remembered as the beginning of something that led to the MCU and the Dark Knight trilogy, and all these other wonderful movies. And then I think the other part of it is, it will be remembered in the way that the comic book has always been which is, its a franchise about outcasts and outsiders and people who are different, and that is unique within this genre. Its unique in the comics, and its unique in the movies. As a result, the franchise has always been about something about people being treated as other for being different. And it has been ultimately about the thing that makes you different being something that makes you special and strong.
Hes also proud that the franchise has been bold. Not just the first movie, he says. The Deadpool movies were; Logan was bold. Days of Future Past was structurally bold. Restarting the franchise with the younger version of the characters was bold. All of those choices along the way were really radical, creative, original decisions, and required a certain level of complexity in terms of execution and thats part of why weve gotten such extraordinary actors over the years. These movies started bold, they stayed bold, they got even more bold as they went along. Some of the movies were great, some of the movies arent great, but it wasnt for lack of taking big swings.
Kinberg doesnt mind that both Dark Phoenix and Captain Marvel have my emotions make me more powerful scenes in their climaxes. The idea of emotions as a source of strength is something that our culture in general increasingly embracing, he says. I think that specifically, women have been told for a long time that emotions make them week. And its a message thats going to be one that youll see more, whether its a female protagonist movie, or its, you know, a female candidate for something. Increasingly, hopefully, the culture is going to understand and embrace that emotions are not something weak theyre actually something strong. And thats something men could learn a lot from too, because men tend to repress a lot of their emotions, and thats where a lot of our aggression and and sort of mental health issues come from.
Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige and his team are are almost certainly figuring out how to incorporate new versions of the X-Men into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Kinberg, however, has no details. I honestly dont know, he says. I wish I had an answer for you. I think Marvel Studios is still figuring that out. They had a very clear plan and now the X-Men are part of that plan. So they theyre figuring out how to integrate them into that plan. But I dont know how quickly and I dont know what way.
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