X-Men: Dark Phoenix Cast and Director Update

EXCLUSIVE: Fox has formalized plans for Dark Phoenix, the next installment of the X-Men franchise. This all just happened, but they’ve formalized Simon Kinberg as director, and the studio set a release date of Friday, November 2, 2018. Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Nicholas Hoult, Alexandra Shipp, Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan, and Kodi Smit-McPhee are all reprising when production begins in Montreal. At the same time, Jessica Chastain is in talk to join the cast as the main villain, Shi’ar Empress Lilandra.

Source: Deadline

So they are finally introducing the Shi'ar?. Sweet, cant wait

Lilandra as a villain?

I think Deathbird should be the villain or her brother D'Ken.

I've got a bad feeling about this.

This feels like a huge leap in the established narrative of the X-Men universe. They've kept things earth related for over a decade, now all of a sudden we get a full blown intergalactic empire and aliens. Just seems jarring IMO.

Eh, the X Men films, bar Logan and First Class, are meh. I was really disappointed in Apocalypse and it's use of the character. Don't really trust them with the Shi'ar and Gladiator. I'd rather remember the 90's cartoon saga.

So who's excited for everyone's least favourite Marvel Superman knock off to confuse the hell out of casual comic book movie viewers?

I don't know how to feel about Kinberg. Hopefully he does well, but I'm cautious since two of the films that he has written have had some of the lowest critical ratings.

They're out of ideas at this point. Clearly. All I can see them doing after this is Onslaught but I don't know how they'll make him work if people thought Apocalypse wasn't interesting.

The Shi'ar being introduced is cool, but I really don't want a Phoenix focused movie.

The X-Men universe is huge so while they might think they're out of ideas, I doubt they really are. The problem is they've stuck with a small set of characters for over a decade without bothering to establish or develop others. Hell, even within that small set of characters, only the likes of Wolverine, Charles, Magneto, and Mystique really count.

They should've rebooted after DoFP. This new timeline is too confusing and it only serves to muddle the canon.

Very good news.

I was a so disappointed by X3...

The Shi'ar, the broods etc...

So much potential if they go there.

Fox has probably the rights of several cosmic characters through the FF. So I think this movie can be great.

I think if they did the Shiar in this movie they should have just had gladiator and lilandra come to earth and have gladiator stomp the x men and then to show how powerful pheonix is have her crush gladiator later in the movie or something like that but immediate full shiar empire sounds bad I don't think they are out of ideas yet the x-men have so many villains they haven't used yet. They may be able to do something about the savage land, they have never had the friends of Humanity, Sinister and marauders is quite easy to do, They could do the morlocks, and they could do something with black tom and Juggernaut. Introducing the Shiar slowly would be a smarter thing to do.

Well at least I will enjoy all of the DCEU Superman vs FOX Gladiator fights.

Jennifer Lawrence is still here. Wasn't she talking shit about leaving and never coming back.

Her presence here already makes the movie lame. Not interested in 2 hours of The Jlaw Everdeen but Neverblue show. Meh.

Lilandra is the villain?

Not happy with that.

Bout time they introduced The Shi'ar. However, Simon Kinberg directing is very worrying.

I mean, a lot of the X-Men's best stories contrary to popular belief usually involved the greater Marvel Universe. Fox is limited being on an island by themselves. But, it's also their lack of interest in developing other characters.

Idk I'm MCU biased so maybe my opinion isn't worth much here. xD

Sounds interesting i hope we get too see the imperial guard

Isn´t Lilandra supposed to be a good character in the comic books ??

Anyway, I´m excited for this, but a little worried on how they are going to introduce the Shi´ar, we´ve never seen anything in space in the X-Men universe, so suddenly seeing an entire empire of aliens will be too much to handle.

@del_torro: i wish they would introduce a new Mystique.

Sophie Turners portrayal of Jean Grey was Cringe worthy.

This yet another movie which will make it harder for my brain to understand the X-Men timeline.

Happy for Gladiator.

Hopefully this movie will lead to more respect for him.

Never thought I'd see Glads on the big screen.

Can't wait for this

I'm glad Jennifer Lawrence, James McAvoy, and Fassbender are returning. Those last two always knock it out of the park with their performances. I really like J-Law and I hope she brings her A-game, as opposed to what we got in Apocalypse.

I hope the movie doesn't become about her like in DOFP.

I feel ya, lol, but I still think DoFP is a great movie. What do you think?

I agree the movie shouldn't focus on her. Xavier and Magneto are the leading characters of this franchise and they deserve a lot of screentime. I also really enjoyed Nightcrawler in Apocalypse and hope he gets development. There's also Cyclops. My biggest concern about this movie is Jean Grey. I thought Sophie's acting in Apocalypse was mediocre and I hope she doesn't bring this movie down with her. I don't think it's a smart move to take an actress who turned in an unremarkable performance and was criticised for her accent, and make her the title character of the film, but I'll wait and see.

Xavier will probably seduce Lilandra and they'll fight against a different threat.

I have never really been a fan of the Shi'ar, but hopefully they will be good in the movie.

i thought we were done with Lawrence as Mystique?

ugh

@wastelandman: @heirtothekingdom: Gladiator hasn't actually been confirmed yet btw, it's possible they may not include him.

Lawrence thinks too highly of her self, thinks her work is beneath her and just phones it in.

I was hoping for a Shadow King or Onslaught movie instead of Dark Phoenix.

I was hoping Jean and Scott would be taking center stage (but not dominating) for this movie, but it seems it will be once again the Jennifer Lawrence show. I am so tired of X men movies being dominated by one character and with Hugh Jackman retiring from Wolverine and Jlaw claiming she was done, i was hoping the series would actually become about the team. But, it just seems impossible for Fox to make an ensemble X men movie (first class was the closest they ever got)

@rdclip: According to the rumors Scott and Jean will be the focus of the movie with Mystique, Magneto, and Xavier only having minor roles.

Great.........more of that annoying Jennifer Lawrence Mystique.

Maybe, but Jennifer Lawrence will no doubt be paid significantly more than any other cast member. I would think Fox would want to get their moneys worth. Unless it is a case of her getting paid very well for only having to bet there for a couple of weeks (or less)

idk about him seducing her but I expect it to follow the original story to some degree of them being used to keep her cousin or brother in check before he opens the M'Kraan crystal and destroys the universe or something along those lines.

Looking forward to seeing the Shi'ar.

That's a shame.

@lvenger said:

So who's excited for everyone's least favourite Marvel Superman knock off to confuse the hell out of casual comic book movie viewers?

Pfft. The second I saw your name as this thread's creator I knew there must be a Gladiator snark in there :p

Seriously though, I'm not convinced there will be a Gladiator. I mean, Kallark with whole Superman's powerset and aesthetics? They can get away with that in comics, I'm not sure they can get away with that on big screen.

@adamtrmm: Had to get it in there somewhere heh. I agree with you, Kallark might not be in Dark Phoenix. He is too similar to Superman to the casual CBM fan and the film makers could think the audience would get confused.

@lvenger: I disagree they will never call him Kallark only gladiator to distance themselves for one, there are many different colors for two so that only leaves similar powers which frankly I don't think is that big a deal they can even distance the powers slightly

This has the potential to be the worst X-men movie from the new generation, maybe even the worst X-men movie period.

@lvenger:

Just admit it, you don't really hate him as much as you make it seem lol!

Not only that, but also whole legal/license issues as well. Maybe as the user bellow you suggested if they get rid of the name + heat vision and cape to distance him from Supes that may be less of an issue, but as he is I won't be surprised if he'll be ditched entirely, which is shame because he's such an integral part of Shi'ar mythos and presence. And face it, "DCEU MoS vs. foX Glads" battle threads might be hilarious if he's done right lolz Though I'm also not entirely convinced he'll be done right even if they do go there, when foX's strength is mainly in dramaturgy rather than accurate adaptation and aesthetics (Apoc looked like shit + powers are kinda underrepresented/dimensionless in foXverse).

Really curious what they are cooking there, even though I learned to have my expectations as low as possible.

@lvenger said:

So who's excited for everyone's least favourite Marvel Superman knock off to confuse the hell out of casual comic book movie viewers?

YO KALLARK??