What Happened to Dark Phoenix?
The X-Men franchise started in 2000 and ended in 2020, along the way they had 13 movies and grossed over $6 billion at the box office. One of those movies being Dark Phoenix, the final movie in this X-Men franchise, excluding The New Mutants because it’s a spin-off. But Dark Phoenix is infamous for having a super troubled production. What happened with the movie? What was the director’s original vision for the movie?
What Happened?: In late 2016, Simon Kinberg a frequent collaborator with the X-Men franchise said he began working on a script for this movie. And he wanted to make a movie that tackled mental health, and he did do a bunch of research. James McAcoy (Charlex Xavier) said this was the most emotional script he read for an X-Men, and praised it. Kinberg said he really wanted to direct this movie, and a distinct vision for the movie that he only wanted to tell if he directed it. Because originally Bryan Singer was going to direct this movie, but was fired because of sexual abuse chargers (good reason). And Kinberg was signed on as the director, even Jennifer Lawrence said she would only do the movie if Kinberg directed it. But after a negative test screen time, they decided to go and do reshoots on the movie. But in March 2018 the movie was pushed back from November 2nd, 2018 to February 14th, 2019. Because the cast wouldn’t be available for reshoots until August 2018 and September 2018. Ahead of reshoots, Kinberg wanted to rewrite the final battle that was the main focus for the reshoots. And we will get more into why he wanted to reshoot the final battle for the movie. But even the reshoots had to be delayed because Kinberg wanted to make sure everything was right. In September 2018, the movie was pushed back once again to June 7th, 2019 which is where it stuck. The movie went on to gross $32.8 million opening weekend, $65.8 million domestically through-out it’s run, and $252.4 million through-out its run. Note…it had a $200 budget so it is one of the biggest box office bombs for any comic book movie. And the movie only has a 22% on Rotten Tomatoes, making it the lowest rated X-Men film out there.
What Was Changed?:
The Villains: For the villains of the movie, they wanted the Skrull so it was going to be the X-Men vs The Skrull as the finale. BUT, Captain Marvel had the Skrulls in their movie, and was pretty important to the plot. So both Tye Sherdian (Cyclops) and James McAvoy (Professor X) said in interviews, they believe that is why the movie’s finale was changed. It’s not confirmed, but that is a big rumor. So after they cut The Skrulls from the movie, they brought in Jessica Chastain as the villain. And so they had to shoot her scenes and add her into the movie as the film’s new villain.
The Finale: And this is probably the most interesting change made to this movie. Because the original finale was going to be more personal and it was going to tie in politics and be political. Tye Sherdian said they were going to go to the U.N. to warn them about an alien invasion, only to discover they were Skrulls as well. And so all of this stuff was cut from the final movie, and they reshooted a new finale on a train. Which is a pretty cool action sequence if you ask me.
Cyclops and Jean Gray: One of the key relationships in Marvel comics is the relationship between Cyclops and Jean Gray. And reports have said, their relationship was going to be a prime focus for this movie. In early test screenings, that is what people said coming out of it. And they have had a scene where Jean uses her powers to restrain Cyclops’ laser blast, so he could take off his glasses. But obviously, that was never in the movie. And we got teases of it, a few scenes of it. But nothing really exciting was present in this movie with their relationship.
Beast’s Arc: I found the usage of Beast in Dark Phoenix to be very weird and not a good idea. I get that he had feelings for Mystique, and after she died he was filled with grief and sadness. And he starts blaming Charles Xavier for her death, but it’s not really his fault. Basically, Beast turns against Xavier and turns to Magneto to help kill Jean. And so in the finale, Beast is fighting his friends, and that doesn’t feel like the character established in previous movies. So in the original movie, Xavier was going to take blame for Mystique’s death and apologize to Beast. And so the outcome of Beast’s arc was going to be very different.
Jean returns to Mystique’s death site: There is an official photo put on the internet that seems to apply that Jean went back to visit the place where Mystique died. And this scene could have filled in one of the film’s plot holes. How did Jessica Chastian’s character know where Jean was? And this scene would have helped flesh that out, and fill in some gaps.
Charles Xavier’s different ending: Charles Xavier’s endpoint in the movie was going to be very different. Where in the original version, Charles was going to retire as headmaster of the school. And Beast would have taken over the mantle of headmaster, and it was renamed Jean Gray School. Basically, Xavier wanted to withdraw himself from the real world, like how he did in X-Men: Days of Future Past.
Would I Like to See This Movie?: The movie that we did get was very mediocre, underwhelming, and forgettable. And it felt like it did a bunch of things but didn’t know where it wanted to end up. And it seemed like with the original vision of the movie, it would have fixed that issue. And would be more coherent and felt like 1 vision for this movie. So, if we did get a director’s cut for this movie. I’d be interested in checking it out, maybe this franchise would have gone out on a bigger bang.
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