Dark Phoenix director Simon Kinberg recently revealed Jennifer Lawrence’s major condition to return for the last film of the X-Men saga.
The Hollywood Reporter had a chance to speak with Dark Phoenix director Simon Kinberg about the film, the evolution of the X-Men saga, and what’s to come for him as a director. Kinberg was asked about the fact that much of the big stars of the franchise, including Jennifer Lawrence, didn’t have a contract to return for a fourth film and if they had alternate scripts for Dark Phoenix in case she or any other members of the cast chose not to return. Kinberg was fast to answer that after Bryan Singer exited the X-Men franchise, the core cast, mainly Jennifer Lawrence, insisted that Kinberg himself directed Dark Phoenix if they were to return for this last film:
“We presumed the First Class core cast — Fassbender, McAvoy Jennifer and Nic [Hoult] were coming back for this film. Part of the reason I presumed that was at the end of finishing X-Men: Apocalypse, when it was clear Bryan Singer was not going to direct the next movie, it was the actors that approached me about directing the next of the X-Men movies. Jennifer especially. Jen said she wouldn’t come back for another movie unless I directed it. So, I had a lot of support from them.”
The current X-Men cast has been the main focus of the films since 2011’s X-Men: First Class which reintroduced characters Charles Xavier (James McAvoy), Michael Fassbender (Magneto), Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), and Beast (Nicholas Hoult). While Dark Phoenix is set to conclude this current iteration of the franchise, the film has already been confirmed to also feature the death of Jennifer Lawrence’s Mystique.
Simon Kinberg has been very involved with the X-Men since the first film dropped back in 2000 with Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Patrick Stewart, and Ian McKellen. Kinberg even co-wrote X-Men: The Last Stand back in the day which coincidentally includes Jean Gray showing her Phoenix powers. Dark Phoenix is set to be the final installment of the current franchise before the film series is rebooted under the Marvel and Disney umbrella.
This is the story of one of the X-Men’s most beloved characters, Jean Grey, as she evolves into the iconic DARK PHOENIX. During a life-threatening rescue mission in space, Jean is hit by a cosmic force that transforms her into one of the most powerful mutants of all. Wrestling with this increasingly unstable power as well as her own personal demons, Jean spirals out of control, tearing the X-Men family apart and threatening to destroy the very fabric of our planet. The film is the most intense and emotional X-Men movie ever made. It is the culmination of 20 years of X-Men movies, as the family of mutants that we’ve come to know and love must face their most devastating enemy yet — one of their own.
Are you excited for Jennifer Lawrence’s Mystique to return in Dark Phoenix? Do you wish Jennifer Lawrence’s Mystique had a different fate? Are you disappointed this will be Jennifer Lawrence’s last time playing Mystique? Are there any other comic book roles you think Jennifer Lawrence would be good for? Let us know in the comments below!
Written and directed by Simon Kinberg, Dark Phoenix stars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan, Alexandra Shipp, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Evan Peters, and Jessica Chastain.
Dark Phoenix will be released in theaters on June 7, 2019.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
