“X-Men: Dark Phoenix” director Simon Kinberg has just spoiled his own movie and mentioned who will die in a new interview.
Last chance. Huge Spoiler Warning!
Still with us? OK, in the opening moments of the new trailer, Jean Grey/Dark Phoenix (Sophie Turner) murders shape-shifting mutant Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence)! In an interview with EW, Kinberg explains what made him want to reveal such a shocker in the new trailer.
“Well, the thought process behind that was to primarily show that this is a movie that is unlike other X-Men movies,” said Kinberg. “It’s a movie where shocking things happen, where intense, dramatic things happen. People don’t just fall off buildings and dust themselves off and walk away. There’s a reality to this movie and a consequence to this movie. Even more than that, it was to show that Jean/Dark Phoenix is genuinely a threat to everyone, including the X-Men.”
“I felt it was the strongest, most dramatic thing for the movie, and sometimes you have to make those kinds of hard decisions to service the larger story,” added Kinberg. “And the larger story really is Jean cracking up, losing control because she’s more powerful than anyone else in the world. To dramatize that properly, you have to show real loss, you have to show real pain and show real threat and menace.”
For those who don’t know, the film is based on the highly celebrated and influential “X-Men” storyline of the same name by Chris Claremont and John Byrne, as detailed in “Uncanny X-Men” #101-108 (1976-1977) and “Uncanny X-Men” #129-138 (1980). In that story, Jean Grey merges with a cosmic entity that embodies the universal energy of creation and destruction, giving her vastly enhanced psychic abilities that transform her into “Dark Phoenix,” a genocidal force of unimaginable power.
The film was written and directed by Kinberg, and also stars Jessica Chastain, Michael Fassbender, Tye Sheridan, James McAvoy, Nicholas Hoult and Evan Peters.
“X-Men: Dark Phoenix” hits theaters June 7.