As exciting as the prospect of the X-Men being rebooted into the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the future is, it will mean the end of Fox’s near 20-year franchise – the one that helped kick of the big-screen superhero boom in the first place. But judging by the latest trailer, X-Men: Dark Phoenix could be a fitting finale for the the mutants to go out on. One final trailer for the long-awaited film has been released, teasing more action, more emotion, and a more epic scope for a storyline that ranks among the X-Men’s very best.
There’s nothing drastically new or different in this trailer, but it does have a confidence and a sense of scale that brings renewed excitement for Dark Phoenix. There are hints of a zippy Nightcrawler fight, some helicopter-smashing action on Magneto’s mutant paradise Genosha (read more about that here), and some nice delivery from lead Sophie Turner as she admits that being bad feels pretty good.
The Dark Phoenix saga sees the telepathic Jean become corrupted by a cosmic entity known as the Phoenix Force – a destructive, near-uncontrollable being that turns her into an antagonist of Professor X and his team. When the weight of the situation truly kicks in, the X-Men are split in their allegiances – some hoping Jean can be saved, others maintaining that she must be destroyed. It’s a big, powerful story that wasn’t exactly done justice in 2006’s maligned X-Men: The Last Stand – so here’s hoping writer-director Simon Kinberg can do it justice on a second attempt.
While it’s been long thought that X-Men: Dark Phoenix could be the final Fox film, earlier this month senior Fox exec Emma Watts took to the stage at CinemaCon in Las Vegas to debut some new footage and called the film the “perfect send-off for our X-Men team”. By the sounds of it, this really is the end. Catch James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender’s final turns as Professor X and Magneto when X-Men: Dark Phoenix hits UK cinemas on 5 June.
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