Fox has released a second trailer for the upcoming X-Men: Dark Phoenix, simply titled Dark Phoenix. Similar to the first trailer, this second one is dark in tone, foreshadows major character deaths and devastation, and revolves around Sophie Turner’s Jean Grey as she’s unable to control her immense powers, all while Jessica Chastain’s unnamed character attempts to manipulate her into unleashing them. Check it out below.
I won’t blame Fox and Simon Kinberg for not exercising restraint with spoilers. They need to get as many people to see the movie and its understandable they’re going all out with the footage. Barring a few jarring shots, such as what looks like an attempt to digitally de-age James McAvoy and the climactic train sequence, the trailer looks competent enough to make for a decent, summer action flick. The Dark Phoenix storyline has however already been done in X-Men 3: The Last Stand so it remains to be seen how it shapes up in Kinberg’s hands.
The trailer seems to be at the receiving end of a lot of hate so far, particularly in lieu of Disney’s upcoming acquisition of Fox. With the deal imminent, so is the franchise’s reboot, rendering this movie as redundant in the eyes of many people. To those, I only state this: ConsiderDark Phoenix as the conclusion of an X-Men franchise that has been running with a series of movies for over 20 years now. It’s going to be a bittersweet swan song as we bid farewell to these mutants and usher in some completely new ones.
Talking about the trailer itself, it appears no one is going to be spared from the wrath of Jean Grey. There are also some cool shots that show the exact same scenario from The Last Stand, particularly the one with Xavier and Magneto looking at confronting Jean, a sequence which did not end well in that movie. And it looks like everyone from Mystique to Storm to Cyclops is going to get a moment or two with Jean as they each try to talk her down from the surge of powers overwhelming her.
X-Men: Dark Phoenix hits theaters on June 7, 2019. Directed by Simon Kinberg, it features most of the ensemble from 2011’s X-Men: First Class including James McAvoy as Professor Charles Xavier, Michael Fassbender as Eric Lensherr / Magneto, Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique, Tye Sheridan as Cyclops, Evan Peters as Quicksilver and Nicholas Hoult as Beast with Jessica Chastain as an as-yet unknown alien and Sophie Turner as the central Jean Grey.
