“Dark Phoenix” arrives in theaters this weekend, ending the 20-year run of Fox ‘X-Men’ films. However, the version of the film that the audience will enjoy now is very different from what was originally intended. And as we have learned previously, writer-director Simon Kinberg had to greatly change his film due to other superhero films feeling very similar. Now, in an interview with io9, he explains what films affected his story.
“My original ending didn’t have the entire X-Family together the way they are in the film now,” revealed Kinberg. “More than ‘Captain Marvel,’ you could see a lot of ‘Civil War’ in that ending.”
He continued, “Usually, these big, huge action movies have the climactic moment in the third act. I loved the way that ‘Civil War’ had its big action set piece where everyone’s facing off more towards the end of the second act rather than in the third, so that after that huge battle, you’re left with Winter Soldier, Captain America, and Iron Man.”
While I’m not going to go on record as saying that Kinberg isn’t being 100% truthful, this explanation doesn’t really explain why the third act of the film was reshot last year. “Captain America: Civil War” was released in 2016 and “Dark Phoenix” didn’t begin production until midway through 2017. Surely, someone involved in the production saw ‘Civil War’ in the year between its release and the beginning of “Dark Phoenix.”
Kinberg would go on to explain that there was another MCU film that shared similarities with his film — “Captain Marvel.” He said that the “intimacy” of the final act of ‘Civil War’ was what he was originally going for in “Dark Phoenix,” but there were shades of Carol Danvers.
He explained, “That’s what I was going for with ‘Dark Phoenix’s’ ending even though it then might have looked like ‘Captain Marvel’ for about two minutes.”
Rumors and speculation abound this last week once the press saw “Dark Phoenix.” The amateur sleuths on the internet used the information about the reshoots and the recent crop of superhero films to narrow it down to what film probably forced Fox’s hand. This led to the obvious choice (especially once you see the film), “Captain Marvel.”
**Spoilers ahead for “Dark Phoenix”**
The reshot third act of “Dark Phoenix” features a battle on a train with the X-Men (plus Magneto) banding together to protect Jean Grey from Jessica Chastain’s shape-shifting alien henchmen. But after you see the film, particularly with the character of Vuk (Chastain), you begin to formulate theories about what actually changed in the film.
Sure, there are probably ‘Civil War’ influences in the film. But really, what recent superhero film features a shape-shifting group of aliens attempting to harness a power to find themselves a new home? “Captain Marvel,” obviously. And when you consider that Fox had the rights to the Skrulls (shared with Marvel Studios), there’s been speculation that Chastain’s character was originally a Skrull and was given a quick (not great) backstory and some additional (unexplained) powers to distance the character from her original Skrull form.
In addition, it was said that the original third act of the film featured action in space. It’s also been speculated that the third act of “Dark Phoenix” originally saw a fully powered, fiery Phoenix (Sophie Turner) fighting an evil alien fleet of ships near Earth, which again, feels an awful lot like “Captain Marvel.” Backing up that theory, it was revealed that Turner’s character was given a new look (no more fire!) to differentiate herself from other films.
All that to say, sure, Kinberg was probably influenced by ‘Civil War,’ but the reshoots clearly were caused by similarities with “Captain Marvel.” And when you go out and watch the film, feel free to play the game of “What was cut/reshot in ‘Dark Phoenix?’” It’s fun for the whole family!