rose byrne dark phoenix

With all of the ladies taking center stage in ‘X-Men: Dark Phoenix’ with Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) as the titular Phoenix, the always powerful Storm (Alexandra Shipp), Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence),  and the addition of Jessica Chastain as the mysterious character Smith, who supposedly IS NOT Lilandra, (though I’ll believe it when I see it), there is apparently one woman from ‘X-Men: First Class’ who will not be making an appearance.

Apparently, Rose Byrne’s Moira McTaggert will not be in ‘X-Men: Dark Phoenix,’  even though her character had her memories returned in ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ after being absent in ‘X-Men: Days Of Future Past.’ Her absence is strange as throughout the series she has been a driving motivation for Charles Xavier as he has long had a secret love (crush?) on her, and her skillset has been a big asset to the X-Men in the past. While speaking to Cinemablend recently while doing press for ‘Peter Rabbit,’ Rose Byrne confirmed that Moira would not be appearing in ‘X-Men: Dark Phoenix.’ In her words:

“Unfortunately, Moira is not showing up. I wish she was. I had such fun on X-Men: Apocalypse. I love that cast. It is a really fun, what do you call it? Superhero film… ensemble exactly. I can’t wait to see what [Jessica Chastain] does, cause I’m such a fan.”

Story-wise it makes sense why she would not just drop everything and join the team on their adventures, especially since we found out in ‘Apocalypse’ that she has a family now and a new life, and it would be difficult for her to give all that up. It still feels weird, however, to have such an important character just not show up at all. True, her character could be name dropped or referenced by a character at some point during the film, but this might lend some credence to the theory that we might see Charles move on to a new love interest (i.e. Lilandra) in this film and leave Moira behind. I suppose we really will not know until the movie comes out in November.

Do you have any thoughts on the matter? Feel free to share them in the comments section below!