X-Men: Dark Phoenix gets first look from Entertainment Weekly

After months of being left in the dark, Entertainment Weekly unveils our first look at X-Men: Dark Phoenix along with some early plot details.

The X-Men universe is taking a big leap into a new direction in 2018. In April, the franchise will dive into horror/thriller territory with The New Mutants and in June, fans will be able to watch the highly-anticipated sequel to 2016’s Deadpool. While both of these movies look very promising, the biggest and potentially most intriguing film that releases next year might be X-Men: Dark Phoenix.

On Nov. 2, 2018, X-Men: Dark Phoenix will continue the new generation of the X-Men following X-Men: Apocalypse and it will be translating the popular comic book storyline, the Dark Phoenix saga, onto the big screen. After Bryan Singer and 20th Century Fox tried to squeeze the beloved story arc into 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand, fans have been craving to see the story told right. Now, we have our first official look at the movie and it looks like we’re in for a treat.

Credit: Entertainment Weekly

As you can see, Entertainment Weekly‘s latest First Look Issue features our first look at Sophie Turner’s Jean Grey from X-Men: Dark Phoenix. The way Turner’s character looks is absolutely breathtaking as fans get to take in all of Jean Grey’s hot new look.

We also have our first official description of what this next X-Men movie will be about beyond the idea that this film will be a loyal adaptation of the Dark Phoenix saga. The official description from Entertainment Weekly reads:

"Set in 1992, about 10 years after the events of last year’s X-Men: Apocalypse, Dark Phoenix opens with the X-Men, including Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), Beast (Nicholas Hoult), Storm (Alexandra Shipp), Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee), and Quicksilver (Evan Peters), in a new, unexpected role: national heroes. Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) even lands on the cover of Time magazine. But his growing ego puts the team at risk. “Pride is starting to get the better of him, and he is pushing the X-Men to more extreme missions,” Kinberg says. After they’re dispatched to space for a rescue mission, a solar flare hits the X-Jet and the surge of energy ignites a malevolent, power-hungry new force within Jean (Game of Thrones’ Sophie Turner)— the Phoenix."

Simon Kinberg is determined to bring this storyline to life in the right way with X-Men: Dark Phoenix. He wrote the screenplay for X-Men: The Last Stand while Bryan Singer directed the film. Now, we will get to see Kinberg sit in the director’s chair and give us a kick-ass Dark Phoenix movie.

"“[The film] was so clear in my head, emotionally and visually, that it would have killed me to hand this to somebody else to direct,” Kinberg says."

Credit: Entertainment Weekly

Along with the brand-new cover and description, Entertainment Weekly also dropped a handful of images that give us a first-look at our favorite characters in the upcoming film.

First of all, we get another blazing picture of Sophie Turner as Jean Grey and the visual effects look extraordinary. One of the biggest precautions fans might have before walking into this movie is how well Jean Grey’s firey transformation will look on the big screen. Director Simon Kinberg explained that they were fully aware of this concern and as a result, Dark Phoenix will stay in post-production for nearly a year, which is longer than most films before it.

"“I wanted the post time to deliver on the nuance of the visual effects, not just the scale of them. That takes time.”"

Credit: Entertainment Weekly

In the first five minutes of the film, the X-Men will already enter new territory as they head up into space on a rescue mission to save some stranded astronauts. As seen in the concept art above, the X-Jet is hit by a solar flare and Jean Grey uses her power to save her teammates. However, something goes terribly wrong as the extreme surge of energy eventually unlocks the Phoenix.

"“Jean absorbs those solar flares and then hurls them back out into space,” explains director Simon Kinberg of the sequence shown in the above exclusive concept art. “That’s what triggers, awakens, creates this Phoenix force and voice inside her. What appears to the world to be another heroic victory by the X-Men in saving stranded people in space we realize is the the thing that begins the unraveling of Jean and the unraveling of secrets Charles told her.”"

The way the Phoenix force is triggered is a pretty simple plot point and will be easy to follow. From there, however, all hell will break loose and we will finally see the interpretation of the Dark Phoenix that we have been waiting to see since 1980.

Credit: Entertainment Weekly

X-Men: Dark Phoenix might also be the darkest and most dramatic X-Men film to date. On the left, it looks like Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) is mourning the death of a certain X-Man along with Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee), Cyclops (Tye Sheridan) and Storm (Alexandra Shipp).

At first glance, this could be a funeral for Jean Grey as her fellow teammates might believe she perished after saving them from the solar flare. However, if Jean Grey goes down a devastating path of destruction similar to the way it happened in the comics, there’s a good chance we could see her kill one of her fellow teammates. The key players missing from the photo are Quicksilver, Beast, Mystique and Magneto. It would be a huge shocker if any of those characters were killed off in the first act of the film, raising the stakes in the best way possible.

Also, Jennifer Lawrence says this film has its fair share of drama along with the usual action sequences we expect to see in superhero movies. She said:

"“I would call Dark Phoenix a drama,” says Lawrence. “We have really great action scenes and we go to space like within the first five minutes of the movie. So it’s definitely exciting but emotionally all these characters are taking the biggest, most extreme dives than they have in the whole series.”"

Click here to view the rest of the X-Men: Dark Phoenix photos exclusively revealed by EW.

X-Men: Dark Phoenix hits theaters on Nov. 2, 2018, and stars Sophie Turner, Jennifer Lawrence, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Evan Peters, Nicholas Hoult, Alexander Shipp and Jessica Chastain.

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