Dark Phoenix Will End X-Men Series, Here's

What We Learned at CinemaCon

Disney used part of their presentation at CinemaCon to showcase Dark Phoenix,
which will officially conclude this version of the franchise. Disney recently finished
up their merger with Fox, meaning that they're in control of all the franchises that
were under that roof, which includes the X-Men. Disney inherited Dark Phoenix,
but they still intend to release it and give this version of the series the send-off it
deserves. And, based on the reactions to the footage, this may well actually be a
worthy conclusion to the long-running franchise.
Before digging into what was shown, let's get one important detail out of the way.
Even though it's been highly suspected, it was confirmed on stage by Fox's
Emma Watts, who came out on stage to introduce Dark Phoenix, that this will
indeed be the swan song for the X-Men, at least in this iteration. Watts called it
the "perfect send-off for our X-Men team." That's crystal clear. It's also worth
mentioning that Disney had The New Mutants on their release schedule at the
event. Does that mean they're going to release it before Dark Phoenix? Or just
dump it to a streaming service like Hulu? That remains to be seen.
As for the footage itself, it kicked off with a sequence that sees the core X-
Men team going on a mission into space in order to save some stranded
astronauts. Things go very wrong and Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) is hit by a
powerful cosmic force. She survives though and winds up with incredible power
as a result. Once they're back on Earth, Cyclops (Tye Sheridan) asks her, "Have
you heard what the kids are calling you? Phoenix." This then leads to a rather
action-packed montage of footage.
We see Jean saying that bad things happen around her, but it "feels
good." Professor X(James McAvoy) then warns that Jean will kill them all. There
were reportedly various action shots. A hallway fight and Magneto controlling a
bunch of machine guns. There was a telling shot of Jessica Chastain's
mysterious villain talking to Jean, saying that this power destroyed everything it
ever touched before finding her. Chastain's identity has been kept very secretive
up to this point and it doesn't sound like they're going to give this one away until
the movie arrives.
Dark Phoenix marks the directorial debut of Simon Kinberg, who has been a
longtime writer and producer on the series. There were those who expected the
movie was in trouble, as major reshoots were ordered and there had been lots of
negative buzz behind the scenes. But the reaction to this footage, coupled with
what was shown at WonderCon recently, offers up some up. Dark Phoenix is set
to hit theaters on June 7.