By Armando
L-R: director, writer, producer Simon Kinberg, co-producer Hutch Parker, Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan, Nicholas Hoult, Alexandra Shipp, Evan Peters and Kodi Smit-McPhee
Photo: AI Photo Imaging.
The cast and filmmakers of 20th Century Fox’s upcoming film “X-Men: Dark Phoenix” surprised fans on Friday at WonderCon.
Those who attended the panel at the Arena were also lucky enough to receive a new poster of the film, which is exclusively released for the WonderCon event.
In attendance was English actress Sophie Turner who plays Jean Grey/Dark Phoenix in the latest installment. She is known for her performance as Sansa Stark on the HBO’s hit fantasy drama tv series Game of Thrones.
“I look like Megamind. It’s terrible,” said Turner about the bald head cap she wears for special effects. “You don’t feel cool.”
Also in the panel were longtime X-Men film series writer/producer Simon Kinberg, who also directed Dark Phoenix, as well as co-producer Hutch Parker. “The underlying material is just so good and frankly it’s better than we’ve been as storytellers in some cases,” Kinberg said. “This is a film that aspires to try to tackle the potential of all of that while honoring the legacy and the characters.”
Returning X-Men series actors were also there: Tye Sheridan (Cyclops), Nicholas Hoult (Beast), Alexandra Shipp (Storm), Evan Peters (Quicksilver) and Kodi Smit-McPhee (Nightcrawler).
(Warning: plenty of spoilers ahead).
The action-packed clip presented by the panel was very enthusiastically received by fans at the Arena. It starts with Mystique, Jean Gray, Beasts, Cyclops, Storm, Quicksilver, and Nightcrawler on an emergency during a mission in outer space to rescue a NASA shuttle, with the team using their powers to rescue the astronauts with Mystique in command.
When the team returns to earth, they were welcomed as heroes. But not everyone was happy, as Professor X and Mystique started to argue about the risk they take to show the world that they are indeed heroes while putting their lives in danger.
With Jean saving the day, Mystique even went as far as suggesting to changing the team’s name: “The women are always saving the men around here. You might want to think about changing the name to X-Women,” a line that was greeted by a loud cheer from fans at WonderCon.
There was also a clip what shows Professor X, Storm and Cyclops battling Magneto, Beast, Red Lotus and Selene on the streets of New York City. Magneto blasts through the wall of a building, floating in the air while using his powers to pull a subway car from behind him to block the wall.
This led to a face-to-face confrontation between Magneto and Jean, with Jessica Chastain’s character right beside Jean. In an intense scene, we see Magneto manipulate a piece of metal railing to pierce Jean’s eye.
But as shown in the already released trailer, Jean’s powers managed to turn the tables. “And you couldn’t even do that,” Phoenix says as she uses her powers to bent Magneto’s helmet. “Let me show you how.”
The clips were thrilling and spectacular, and possibly darker than most X-Men films fans have loved through the years, and giving some of the best footage so far that shows the overall scope of the film.
Also in the film are James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence and series newcomer Jessica Chastain who joins as the villain. Dark Phoenix is set for release on June 7, 2019.
Directed by Maia Wechsler, “If The Dancer Dances” opens theatrically in New York (The Quad) on Friday, April 26th and in Los Angeles on Friday, May 3rd (Laemmle Music Hall) with a national release to follow.
