Wondercon 2019 got off to exciting start. 20th Century Fox’s DARK PHOENIX panel gave us some exclusive clips of last installment of the X-Men franchise before it heads over to Disney control.
The director of the film, Simon Kinberg, explained the true purpose of DAYS OF FUTURES PAST. It served as a vehicle to get a “real” onscreen version of the Dark Phoenix saga. He wanted to tell an intergalactic X-Men story that was “emotional and cosmic”. Stating in the panel that he wanted to give the fans “a different kind of super hero movie” that would give us the type of emotion that LOGAN did.
If you don’t want SPOILERS on what was shown during this panel, considering this your final warning before the point of no return.
X-Men in Space
The panel treated Wondercon fans to two clips, the first one clocking in at ten minutes. It showed the X-Men team (Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast, Nightcrawler, Storm, and Mystique) traveling into space per request of the President of the United States to check on a space shuttle. The shuttle was looking into solar flares. When the X-Men arrive on the scene, we are treated to the first visuals of the Phoenix entity. Cyclops comments that this doesn’t look like a normal solar flare. We get to see the X-Men work as a team to retrieve the space shuttle team, whose shuttle is spinning out of control in space. Nightcrawler and Quicksilver save all but one member of the team. Per Charles Xavier’s request, Jean is to hold the ship together while they rescue the last space shuttle team member.
While they’re successful, we see the Phoenix entity take over Jean’s body, destroying the space shuttle in the process. Jean is left floating in space, until Nightcrawler saves her. Jean is seemingly fine, besides the faint glowing orange and red in her eyes. The X-Men return home heroes, but back at the X-Mansion there is a VERY heated conversation between Mystique and Charles about what his actual motives are. The clip ends with a great snarky line from Mystique: “Women are always saving the men on this team. Might want to change the name to X-Women”
X-Men: Dark Phoenix – Civil War
The next clip we were treated to did not have the VFXs fully rendered, and was being shown for the first time anywhere. We see the X-Men at their very worst moments. The team is seemingly divided, as Beast has joined Magneto to hunt down and kill Jean Grey, who has been completely taken over by the Phoenix. Charles and Cyclops are going to go alone but Storm and Nightcrawler join them per request of Cyclops. They travel to find Magneto, Beast, and two other mutants outside of where Jean is. One woman who has similar powers to Xavier, and one man who has long dreadlocks he can control with his mind. We get confirmation that Mystique has been offed by Jean earlier in the movie. Cyclops also says he will “fucking kill” Magneto if he touches Jean.
Lots of great fighting pair offs in this clip. Magneto eventually gets to Jean Grey, by lifting a New York City subway car through the pavement, and having it following him through the front door. He attempts to kill Jean, but his attempts do not work. Jean is full Phoenix now, and is flanked by Jessica Chastain. The clip ends with Jean crushing Magneto’s helmet as he’s wearing it.
The last clip gave the audience a whole lot to think about. Dark Phoenix hits theaters June 7th.
What do you think of these clips? Let us know in the comments.
