UPDATE: ‘X-Men: Supernova’ Given Working Title ‘Dark Phoenix’ and Going Cosmic?

Jan 15, 2017

Production Weekly has added a second alteration to their unconfirmed X-Men project titled X-Men: Supernova. The first alteration was to change it from X-Men: The New Mutants aka X-Men: Supernova to its own separate project.

We had a friendly source reach out to Fox not too long ago, who stated that Supernova wasn’t a title they were working on. Suggesting that Production Weekly had been given bad information at the time.

They’ve now added a new “working title” to X-Men: Supernova which is Dark Phoenix.

Here’s a synopsis of the Dark Phoenix comic story along with a potential connection to the Supernova title.

Returning from a mission in space, Jean Grey is exposed to the deadly radiation of a solar flare and briefly attains her ultimate potential as a telepath and telekinetic. Jean becomes a being of pure thought and then reforms herself upon return to Earth with the new costume, identity, and power of “Phoenix”. It is with this incredible power that Jean repairs the fractured M’Kraan Crystal but voluntarily restrains her powers afterward in order to keep them under control.[3] Tragically the circuit breakers prevent her from defeating Magneto and start the chain of events leading to Dark Phoenix.

Experiencing this power in its totality overwhelms Jean, and she renames herself “Dark Phoenix”. Enraged at Mastermind, she uses a telepathic illusion to make him experience godhood, driving him insane. To break her ties with her less powerful identity as Jean Grey she strikes down the X-Men and departs for a distant galaxy

However, her power proves to be far more limited than she thought; the intergalactic trip leaves her almost completely drained. To recharge, she devours the energy of the nearby D’Bari star, causing a supernova which kills the entire population of the only civilized planet orbiting the star. A Shi’ar vessel attacks to prevent her from destroying other stars. Dark Phoenix easily destroys the vessel, but not before they alert the Shi’ar Empress Lilandra.

A council of intergalactic associates is gathered, including the Kree and Skrull empires, and concludes that Dark Phoenix is an even more serious threat than the planet-consuming Galactus and must be destroyed.

The Shi’ar abduct the X-Men, tell them of Dark Phoenix’ casual genocide, and declare that she must be put to death. Xavier challenges Lilandra to Arin’n Haelar, a Shi’ar duel of honor that cannot be refused. After conferring with the Kree and Skrull, Lilandra agrees to Xavier’s demand.

The next day, the X-Men and the Shi’ar Imperial Guard are teleported to the Blue Area of the Moon to do battle, with the victors deciding the fate of Phoenix. The Imperial Guard defeat most of the X-Men, leaving Cyclops and Phoenix alone to make a final stand. When Cyclops is seemingly killed, Jean’s panic overrides Xavier’s psychic restraints and restores her to Dark Phoenix. Lilandra initiates Plan Omega, which would consist of destroying the whole solar system in hopes of eliminating Dark Phoenix in the process.

This is a story line that is both more cinematic and relatable for X-Men fans than Supernovas. It’s possible that project’s real title could end up becoming X-Men: Dark Phoenix (or a version of this) as the villain causes a supernova when recharging her powers.

Going cosmic is really the only way to go with future X-Men films and having Cyclops being incorporated into this story might lead to the introduction to his father’s space pirate team The Starjammers (think Guardians of The Galaxy) along with alien groups The Shi’ar Empire and their Imperial Guard expanding the franchise to include Marvel aliens that the studio has access to.

Sophie Turner and Tye Sheridan would likely be the focus of the film which I believe fans had been championing since their castings.

Producer Simon Kinberg had teased The Dark Phoenix Saga being rebooted post-X-Men: Apocalypse but it was never officially announced as the next film.

“Sure. I think everything that hasn’t been told from First Class and Days of Future Past is up for grabs going forward. So, it would absolutely be a story that we could tell in a different way.”

Screen Rant also picked up on the title connection to Phoenix adding quotes from their set interview with Bryan Singer, who admitted adding the cosmic elements from the comics would eventually happen.

“But we’ve also introduced the tenants of time travel, which already exists in the comic book. Also, I imagine – and this is the first time I’ve actually answered the question this way – but another thing that’s been introduced in the comics is a big alien, interstellar tenant within the X-Men universe that hasn’t been explored. And to me, that might be kind of fun because I’m a huge Star Wars and Star Trek fan, and exploring the X-Men universe and being able to utilize that would be exciting, visually.”

“I could take X-Men to space, which brings me right back to Guardians of the f*cking Galaxy. I could find myself on a giant space station. With the M’Kraan Crystal and the whole f*cking thing with mutants. By the way, that sounds like something I’m going to circle back to in about six years.”

In November, Latino Review posted a rumor that Dark Phoenix was up next.

We’re still waiting for an announcement from Fox as they tend not to keep multi-million dollar films quiet months before shooting. There’s also our own concerns we have previously voiced that the project doesn’t have either a writer or director officially attached to it. We’ll have to wait and see if Fox will actually confirm this project.

If production sites are to be believed the film is expected shoot this May in Montreal likely alongside Josh Boone‘s X-Men: The New Mutants.

SOURCE: PRODUCTION WEEKLY

SHARE THIS POST