X-Men: The Last Stand Star Hopes Dark Phoenix Can Avoid The Same Mistakes

It’s funny if you think about it. For a nearly fifteen-year-old movie that fans are all too eager to forget, ‘X-Men: The Last Stand’ continues to cast an unavoidable shadow of the ‘X-Men’ film franchise. That diminished, of course, when the events of the film was scrubbed from the series’ timeline by the ending of ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past‘ in 2014, but the shadow has returned in the years since ‘X-Men: Apocalypse‘.

This, of course, is because the series next core installment will see the powers that be take their second shot at adapting the legendary ‘Dark Phoenix Saga’. In particular, director/producer Simon Kinberg (who also co-wrote ‘The Last Stand’) reportedly sees ‘Dark Phoenix’ as a chance to right past wrongs. And he’s not the only person on the creative side who hopes things turn out better this time. Speaking with Inverse, Famke Janssen (who preceded Sophie Turner as Jean Grey), shared her excitement  to see this second adaptation come to fruition:

“I’m glad the ‘Dark Phoenix Saga’ is finally getting its due. When we tackled it in ‘The Last Stand’, it wasn’t given enough time. I remember hearing from fans after we finished the film that they were disappointed that and enormous moment in the comics was given so little screen time. I’m happy for them to give Phoenix the due that she deserves.”

Whether or not a single film even provides enough screen time to properly adapt the Chris Claremont/John Byrne epic is a matter of some debate, but the matter certainly wasn’t helped by ‘The Last Stand’ essentially splitting its efforts between interpretations of both ‘Dark Phoenix’ and the Joss Whedon/John Cassaday storyline ‘Gifted’. If nothing else, ‘Dark Phoenix’ (as its title makes clear) seems set to focus its efforts solely on adapting the landmark X-Men story. With any luck, that focus will allow the film to succeed where its predecessor failed.

Directed by longtime producer Simon Kinberg, ‘X-Men: Dark Phoenix’ stars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Tye Sheridan, Sophie Turner, Alexandra Shipp, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Evan Peters, Olivia Munn, and Jessica Chastain. For more on ‘Dark Phoenix’, ‘New Mutants’, and other upcoming ‘X-Men’ projects as it becomes available, be sure to check back with ScienceFiction.com!