Omega Underground has been keeping close tabs on upcoming X-Men productions and the one we’ve been most interested in has been X-Men: Dark Phoenix since the studio hasn’t revealed a director or returning cast members.
Even though, we’ve been able to confirm production begins this June 4th in Montreal until sometime in October under the confirmed working title Teen Spirit.
Well, Omega Underground has been able to confirm another aspect of the film, as casting is underway. We’ve uncovered a couple audition tapes for three actors vying for new roles in the film.
They include Australian actor Rarmian Newtown (The Family, Dance Academy) for Shane, young Canadian-American actress Alexa Swinton (Billions) for Marie, and Irish newcomer Paul Mescal for Sam. These might be placeholder character names for the audition process and we’ve seen a similar process in television casting as well.
The dates on the videos suggest they’ve been auditioning new actors since March, if not for longer.
However, it’s hard to ignore that X-Men member Rogue‘s real name is Marie D’Ancanto and the character Swinton is auditioning for is named Marie. Alexa reaffirms in the video that production is taking place in Canada (we’ve confirmed a shoot in Montreal) and is excited about it as her father is Canadian.
We’ve been championing a reboot of the character and introducing her in Dark Phoenix could help establish an older version in future films. This could be a way to reintroduce her to finally grant her powers of flight and super-strength without the connection to Carol Danvers, possibly getting them from aliens like Gladiator a member of the Shi’ar Empire’s Imperial Guard that also has these powers.
It wouldn’t be terribly shocking to see another version of Rogue since Fox recently rebooted mutants such as Jean, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Jubliee, Angel, Colossus, and Psylocke.
If the film indeed takes place in the early 90s as Simon Kinberg has suggested for a while now. Alexa is about the right age for a young Rogue as she was portrayed as 15-16 years old in 2000’s X-Men as played by Anna Paquin.
UPDATE: Swinton’s camp has asked us respectfully request us to take down her audition tape.
Check out their audition tapes below.
https://vimeo.com/212698318
https://vimeo.com/212148675
It’s been expected that James McAvoy, Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan, and possibly Nicholas Hoult will be returning, but we’d likely see new additions as with every X-Men installment and these auditions support that tradition making a return with Dark Phoenix.
With casting in full swing this yet again confirms Dark Phoenix is currently in pre-production and Fox has indeed hired a director, whether it becomes the first-time director Simon Kinberg (as suggested by Collider) or someone else remains to be seen.
Dark Phoenix will be in theaters on November 2nd, 2018.