A new report has suggested that X-Men: Dark Phoenix was initially intended to be two movies before being cut back.
Now that X-Men: Dark Phoenix is out in the wild and not performing as well as one might have expected, questions about the film’s production and origin are being asked. One interesting facet that has come to light regards the film being originally conceived as a two-parter (as let slip by X-Men: Apocalypse star Olivia Munn back in 2017).
Deadline have a report that states the following: “Dark Phoenix was originally planned to be two movies, we hear, and during late pre-production, the studio changed gears and said it was to be one movie. Kinberg [the writer/director], we hear, was flexible and rewrote. Days of Future Past erased the timeline of The Last Stand, so a rebooted story about Jean Grey was possible here. Our sources tell us that testing Dark Phoenix was a continual headache, and the feature adaptation of Chris Claremont, John Byrne, and David Cockrum’s fan-beloved Dark Phoenix Saga comic was hard to get right.”
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The above words certainly help inform why Dark Phoenix might not be the hit with fans and critics that the studio would have hoped for. Who knows, perhaps the film would have worked better for fans as two parts. We will never know.
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).
Originally published June 12, 2019. Updated June 13, 2019.
