This week saw the release of the latest trailer for 20th Century Fox’s upcoming Marvel swansong X-Men: Dark Phoenix, and somewhat surprisingly, it decided to reveal one of the movie’s most closely-guarded secrets: that Jennifer Lawrence’s Mystique is set to fall victim to Sophie Turner’s Jean Grey as she transforms into the Phoenix.
Well, during an interview with Entertainment Weekly, director Simon Kinberg has been discussing why they felt it necessary to include the reveal in the trailer, and how Mystique’s death impacts the movie’s plot.
“The thought process behind that was to primarily show that this is a movie that is unlike other X-Men movies,” states Kinberg. “It’s a movie where shocking things happen, where intense, dramatic things happen. People don’t just fall off buildings and dust themselves off and walk away. There’s a reality to this movie and a consequence to this movie. Even more than that, it was to show that Jean/Dark Phoenix is genuinely a threat to everyone, including the X-Men.”
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“I was obviously sad about it, as Jen’s friend, and also as a fan of Jen as an actress,” he continues. “But I felt it was the strongest, most dramatic thing for the movie, and sometimes you have to make those kinds of hard decisions to service the larger story. And the larger story really is Jean cracking up, losing control because she’s more powerful than anyone else in the world. To dramatize that properly, you have to show real loss, you have to show real pain and show real threat and menace. I didn’t want to do that by her blowing up a building with anonymous people in it. It had to feel really personal for the X-Men, and I wanted it to be something that would fracture the X-Men as well. Mystique is someone who in our universe has been part of the X-Men and has been part of Magneto’s world. Her death impacts literally everybody.”
Kinberg then went on to elaborate on how the characters are impacted, explaining that it splits the X-Men into two camps – one that wants to save Jean, and the other that wants to kill her to avenger their fallen comrade:
“Mystique’s death is the thing that fractures the family of the X-Men, including Magneto, and sets people who were friends on opposite sides, and people who were enemies become allies. For me, if there’s a metaphor for the film, it’s like if someone in your life or your family starts to lose control, whether that be because of drugs or mental health issues or more minor things, the question is: At one point do you give up on them? And how long do you hold out hope for them?”
What do you make of the decision to spoil Mystique’s death in the trailer? Are you looking forward to the movie? Let us know in the comments below or tweet us @FlickeringMyth…
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) and Evan Peters (Quicksilver) 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 6th 2019.
