The original X-Men trilogy ended with X-Men: The Last Stand, a movie that was widely criticized for screwing up “the Dark Phoenix Saga.” Now, 2oth Century Fox is getting a mulligan thanks to X-Men: Days of Future Past and its reboot of the timeline. X-Men: Dark Phoenix is going to be the fourth film in the prequel series, and this time, it may actually be going intergalactic. For our holiday edition of Nerdist News, we’re sharing a few new details that may shed some light on Magneto’s role in this adventure.
There may be potential spoilers ahead for X-Men: Dark Phoenix! Consider this your last chance to turn back!
If you’re a comic fan, you may recall that Magneto didn’t play a role in “the Dark Phoenix Saga,” although he did encounter Jean Grey when she was still simply “Phoenix.” A source close to the film has told us that Michael Fassbender’s new Magneto costume is meant to suggest the imagery commonly associated with cult leaders. We’re thinking this means that Magneto is feeling particularly messianic and he may have attracted followers who buy into that. This probably means that the Acolytes will make their first live-action appearance in this movie. That’s fitting, considering that the X-Men comics introduced that team in the early ’90s, which just happens to be when the film is set.
But there’s more! Our source also tells us that Dark Phoenix will introduce Genosha to the X-Men movieverse. In the late ’80s, writer Chris Claremont created Genosha as a fictional country that had Mutant apartheid. In the ’90s, Magneto eventually seized control of Genosha and declared it to be a new mutant homeland. That worked out just fine… at least until Sentinels wiped out most of the population.
That’s a lot to unpack in a single movie, and we would hope that director Simon Kinberg is still aware of the mistakes made during X-Men: The Last Stand. Having said that, we do think there’s a way that this can work. Since the Hellfire Club is off the table after X-Men: First Class, it could be Magneto’s mutant movement that leads Jean Grey astray and sends her on the path of cosmic annihilation.
What do you think about the latest developments with X-Men: Dark Phoenix? Let us know in the comment section below!
Images: Marvel Comics/20th Century Fox
