There’s good news and bad news for those anticipating X-Men: Dark Phoenix – the good news is that the movie’s a lot further into the casting process than previously realized, but the bad news is that the movie’s already lost one of its new stars – South Korean actor and musician Jung Ji-Hoon.
According to JoongAng Ilbo (via SBS), Jung Ji-Hoon (better known by his stage name, Rain) will not be able to join the rest of the cast of X-Men: Dark Phoenix as initially planned. Fellow actor Lee Beom-Soo explained that Ji-Hoon had to drop out of the superhero movie due to his commitment to a biopic about Korean cyclist Uhm Bok-Dong, which both actors will star in.
Beom-Soo also noted that the unexpected schedule change occurred as a result of X-Men beginning filming in July and Uhm Bok-Dong filming in August, the latter of which is more important to Ji-Hoon since he’s playing the lead role.
Ji-Hoon had previously appeared in Hollywood movies before, collaborating with the Wachowskis twice with Speed Racer and Ninja Assassin and later appearing in a direct-to-video crime thriller The Prince.
X-Men: Dark Phoenix is currently targeting a November 2, 2018, release date.
Source: JoongAng Ilbo (via SBS).
‘X-Men’: How Fox Can Get A ‘Dark Phoenix’ Film Right This Time
Nowadays, you can’t blink without news of a superhero film hitting the web. As we are in the age of the superhero film, we must remember that not that long ago a film based on a comic book property was almost laughed at. Now, superhero films are the billion dollar mega-blockbusters we all know and love. Sure, superhero movies have existed before the ones that are now dominating the box office, but the entire genre almost got a big adrenaline shot with 2000’s X-Men coming out and giving us an earnest adaptation of our favorite mutant superheroes. Since then, there have been 10 movies within Fox’s X-Men universe alone, with 3 new films coming in 2018 and at least 3 more in development.
While not all the X-Men film has been sure hits, they have done some great course-correcting in the newer movies, starting with First Class. The prequel/reboot films gave Fox the opportunity to reset some of their faults from some of the early films (looking at you X-Men: The Last Stand). And Days of Future Past helped correct some of their timeline snappoos and gave us some much-needed closure on the earlier X-Men films. With X-Men: Apocalypse, we were introduced to a young Scott Summers and a young Jean Grey. With the reintroduction of Jean Grey and the great final act of X-Men: Apocalypse, it looks like we might possibly be getting a proper Dark Phoenix storyline on the horizon. Last year, we here at Heroic Hollywood broke the news that a Dark Phoenix movie was in development.
Lucky for us, Fox is moving forward with the movie and X-Men: Dark Phoenix is set to hit theaters November 2, 2018. This gives them the rare opportunity to “get it right.” Because let’s face it, X-Men: The Last Stand did not do the story of the Dark Phoenix justice. The third film of the original X-Men movies as a whole was not well put together. The film tried to juggle too many storylines and did not really give each of the separate stories their justice. By giving the Dark Phoenix angle another look, Fox has the chance to do some course correcting. Here are some ways X-Men: Dark Phoenix can succeed. Click Next to take a look…
