Fox's expansive X-Men film franchise went out with a short-lived whimper with the release of Dark Phoenix. The second attempt at adapting the "Dark Phoenix Saga" was both a critical and financial failure. Evidently, the unimpressive cinematic experience audiences ultimately got says nothing about the ideas that were poured into it.
In a post on Instagram, illustrator David Masson showed fans a striking image of what the Dark Phoenix herself could have looked like. The artwork shows the powerful psychic enveloped in fire and cosmic energy with fury blazing in her eyes. It is an objectively more powerful look than the cracked skin and reddish glow audiences saw in the film, even in the star character's most climactic moments.
Dark Phoenix suffered from a multitude of issues during each stage of development and production stemming from scheduling, extensive reshoots and rewrites and more. The result was what many critics agreed to be a visually inconsistent, poorly written mess. Dark Phoenix went on to gross just $252.4 million worldwide from a budget of approximately $200 million.
We are unlikely to see the "Dark Phoenix Saga" adapted any time in the foreseeable future. With the memory of not one, but two failed attempts at adapting the famed comic book storyline, Marvel Studios -- who now owns the film rights to the X-Men and associated characters -- is unlikely to turn to that particular saga for inspiration for future X-Men films.
Directed and written by Simon Kinberg, Dark Phoenix stars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Holt, Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan, Alexandra Shipp, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Evan Peters and Jessica Chastain. The film is available now on 4k Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD.
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