With the final instalment of the X-Men franchise currently breaking the wrong kind of box-office records – X-Men: Dark Phoenix is reportedly on course to suffer a whopping -73% decline in its sophomore frame at the domestic box-office – plans for a Nicholas Hoult-headlined Beast spin-off movie have been revealed by The Hollywood Reporter.
According to the report, John Ottman, who worked on the franchise’s most successful entries – X2 and Days of Future Past – had written a script along with his assistant, Byron Burton, which was set in the 80s, and featured characters such as Professor X and Wolverine.
Burton revealed the film would see Hank McCoy (Nicholas Hoult) struggling to maintain the beast within during the fallout from Days of Future Past, and would ultimately work as a film in which they’d introduce X-Men villain, Mr. Sinister, who’d been manipulating the events of the movie.
He said that that the “idea was we would have Sinister as this multi-film villain orchestrating things”, while Ottman added that the intention was to “have the tenor of John Carpenter’s The Thing“.
SEE ALSO: Simon Kinberg says X-Men: Dark Phoenix failure “is on me
In the long-term, the Fox sale has acted as the special serum for keeping this Beast caged, but at the time Ottman and Burton were forced to take the film to Simon Kinberg in order to seek permission to use core X-Men characters, such as Xavier and Logan. Hoever, Kinberg was working on Dark Phoenix at the time, and declined to read the script because his focus was on that film.
Ottman and Burton have decided to share the script now that this iteration of the X-Men universe has come to an end. Titled Fear the Beast, you can read the script here.
If you decide to read the screenplay, please let us know what you think by using the comments section below, or head over to our Twitter @FlickeringMyth…
SEE ALSO: X-Men: Dark Phoenix director shares details on the original ending and reshoots
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 July 1, 2019. Updated December 7, 2022.
