Next year, Fox will be bringing you X-Men in two different flavors. If you prefer something different, with a bit of a genre streak running through it, there’s “New Mutants.” However, if you want a good, old-fashioned blockbuster, “X-Men: Dark Phoenix” will do the trick.
The new film sees longtime franchise producer Simon Kinberg step behind the camera and faces new and old coming together. Joining the established players of Jennifer Lawrence, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Nicholas Hoult, Alexandra Shipp, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Evan Peters, and Sophie Turner, most notable is Jessica Chastain as the film’s shape-shifting villain.
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As for the story, it will be loosely based on Chris Claremont’s “Phoenix” comic, picking up ten years after the events of “X-Men: Apocalypse,” in 1992, with the X-Men in the usual position of national heroes. However, it’s Charles Xavier, who puts the whole team in danger, sending them on a space mission that goes sideways.
“Pride is starting to get the better of him, and he is pushing the X-Men to more extreme missions,” Kinberg explained to EW.
As a result Jean Grey rises as Phoenix, while Chastain comes into the mix too, though her baddie won’t necessarily be chewing up the scenery. “Simon and I were talking about the character and I said, ‘I keep thinking of the vet who tells you you need to put your dog down,’ ” the actress said. “There’s something very clinical about it.”
In case you’re wondering about Bryan Singer, he still remains on board with a producer credit, but according to Lawrence not having him on set was a blessing. “[Filming] was unrecognizable. Everything was on time. Everything was organized. These movies have always been fun amidst chaos, and now they were fun with no chaos,” she said. Sounds like there are some old stories that need to be told…
“Acting-wise it was the best experience I’ve had [on these films]. [Simon Kinberg has] been writing these characters for so long and he knows them so deeply. I suddenly felt more connected to my character than I ever have been before,” she added.
That said, the actress has always seemed like she had one foot out the door, but she admits she was pulled back in. Partially, it was because of the fans, and partially because she talked herself into it. “I kind of f—ed myself,” Lawrence explained. “Because when I was trying to talk Simon into directing, he said something like, ‘If I direct it, you have to do it,’ and I was like, ‘Of course! Duh!’ Then they offered me the movie, and I was like, ‘Goddammit!’”
“X-Men: Dark Phoenix” opens on November 2, 2018. 
