X-Men: Apocalypse didn't exactly enjoy the warmest reception, and its box office couldn't match the success of Days Of Future Past. So the team behind the franchise – now led in the director's chair by veteran writer/producer Simon Kinberg – are pinning their hopes on the latest entry, X-Men: Dark Phoenix The first images from the new movie are now online, courtesy of Entertainment Weekly.
This one allows Kinberg to right – and write and direct – a wrong he still feels from his past with the X-movies, when the Dark Phoenix storyline was subsumed into a larger plot of X-Men: The Last Stand in 2006. With regular mutant movie director Bryan Singer stepping aside, Kinberg took his shot: "The film was so clear in my head, emotionally and visually, that it would have killed me to hand this to somebody else to direct," he tells EW.
The film is set in 1992, roughly 10 years after Apocalypse and finds the X-Men dealing with being heroes. An unfortunate side effect is how that fuels Charles Xavier's (James McAvoy) ego. He starts sending the team on more dangerous missions, including one to space that ends with Sophie Turner's Jean Grey going to some very dark places... "It’s about the butterfly effect of this thing happening,” says Turner. "What happens when the person you love the most falls into darkness?"
Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Alexandra Shipp and Kodi Smit-McPhee are all among the returnees for this one, which is out in the UK on 2 November next year. For more images and interviews, head to EW's site.
Evan Peters Will Be Back As Quicksilver For X-Men: Dark Phoenix