We’re now seemingly just a couple of months away from the completion of Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox, which means that Marvel Studios will soon have access to Fox’s roster of Marvel characters from the Fantastic Four and X-Men franchises.
That’s certainly a mouth-watering prospect for Marvel fans – and for Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige, who said he’d been dreaming about it for 20 years – but it appears that not everyone is convinced that the X-Men in particular are a good fit for the MCU.
Actress Sophie Turner, who plays Jean Grey in the X-Men franchise, recently stated that she doesn’t think “the themes through X-Men will collaborate well with the Avengers”, and now that sentiment has been echoed by her co-star James McAvoy:
“I don’t know if the X-Men could go into the Marvel universe, I’m not sure,” McAvoy told Yahoo during a promotional interview for his new movie Glass. “Maybe they could? But I think what’s different about the Avengers universe anyway is you’ve only got a couple of superheroes in the world. There’s a good amount, but there’s like a couple of football teams’ worth, you know what I mean? Whereas in the X-Men world you’re potentially saying there are hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of [superheroes] and the social implication of that is different.”
McAvoy’s comments make sense, and there’s no doubt that the introduction of mutants into the MCU will be a major game changer, and one that will need to be handled carefully. Before then, however, we’ll see McAvoy back as Professor Charles Xavier for what will presumably be the final instalment in Fox’s main X-Men franchise, Dark Phoenix.
In Dark Phoenix, the X-Men face their most formidable and powerful foe: one of their own, Jean Grey. During a rescue mission in space, Jean is nearly killed when she is hit by a mysterious cosmic force. Once she returns home, this force not only makes her infinitely more powerful, but far more unstable. Wrestling with this entity inside her, Jean unleashes her powers in ways she can neither comprehend nor contain. With Jean spiraling out of control, and hurting the ones she loves most, she begins to unravel the very fabric that holds the X-Men together. Now, with this family falling apart, they must find a way to unite — not only to save Jean’s soul, but to save our very planet from aliens who wish to weaponize this force and rule the galaxy.
X-Men: Dark Phoenix sees Simon Kinberg directing a cast that includes franchise veterans Michael Fassbender (Magneto), James McAvoy (Professor X), Jennifer Lawrence (Mystique), Nicholas Hoult (Beast), Alexandra Shipp (Storm), Sophie Turner (Jean Grey), Tye Sheridan (Cyclops), Kodi Smit-McPhee (Nightcrawler), Evan Peters (Quicksilver) and Olivia Munn (Psylocke) alongside new additions Kota Eberhardt (The Persian Connection) as Selene, Andrew Stehlin (Hacksaw Ridge) as Red Lotus, and Jessica Chastain (Molly’s Game) and Lamar Johnson (Kings). It is set for release on June 7th 2019.
