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Dark Phoenix Director Simon Kinberg Talks Jessica Chastain and that Train Scene

Published Thu, 28 Feb 2019 08:15:27 -0600

The Dark Phoenix Saga is one of the most beloved comic book stories of all time and ever since 20th Century Fox announced their intentions to try the story again in Dark Phoenix. They have been nervous ever since and multiple delays have forced those fans to sit on the edge of their seats. Fox has released a new trailer and Entertainment Weekly got the chance to speak to director Simon Kinberg about one of the more mysterious characters in this movie played by Jessica Chastain.

Her character is an alien. She comes from another planet. When you see the entity that enters Jean in space is not a solar flare — it's a cosmic force. For those that know the comic, they know what the force is. Chastain's character is drawn and has been seeking out that cosmic force, and it leads her to Earth and to Jean. It's a force she either wants to control or destroy.

Kinberg confirms that the force looking to enter Jean Grey is indeed the Phoenix Force from the comics. So, at least they are leaning into that aspect of the story. As for Chastain, her character has powers and Chastain has said she gets to fight a few of the X-Men. Kinberg explains what exactly she can do.

She definitely is mentally as strong as Jean. Jean cannot read her mind. Like you see in the trailer, she can manipulate others minds so that they see things that she wants them to see. But she has a whole suite of powers that we explore in the movie; some of them are mental and some of them are physical. There's a whole sequence where she basically takes apart the X-Men.

The trailer has quite a few cool looking moments but the neatest looking one came right at the end. All of the X-Men are on a train wearing what appear to be mutant suppressing collars. There is a sound and it looks like Jean, fully embracing the Phoenix, attacks the train.

Yeah I don't want to give too much way because it is one of our biggest sequences. As consequence of what happens in New York, the X-Men and Magneto and the people Magneto has brought with him end up in that train. There's an attack on the train and Jean is part of it, and at a certain point does float out of the train and with her powers that are supercharged by this Phoenix force inside her, literally rips the train off the tracks and sends it spinning through the air and people go flying of the train. It ends well for some and not so well for others.

Kinberg went on to say that this is one of the bigger scenes in the movie and we get to see a ton of characters using a lot of their powers. In particular, he wanted to make sure this movie showed off how powerful Storm is which is nice since she had virtually nothing to do in X-Men: Apocalypse.

It is a massive sequence in terms of visual effects and powers. What I'm proudest about in terms of the action is it's very visceral, the violence and action. You see Magneto doing some gnarly things. You imagine a train is obviously full of metal, so he's got nothing but weapons around him. What I really wanted to do in this film is show how powerful Storm is because she's obviously she's an incredibly powerful and a strong character in the comics, and I felt like this is an opportunity to showcase that. This is by far and away the heaviest use of powers we've seen from Storm in these movies. That's one sequence where she's also flying at speed above the train, firing lightning bolts down from the heavens.

Whether or not this movie ends up working is still up in the air. If they can make this movie work it would be nice for this version of the X-Men to go out on a high note since this is likely the last time we'll see these characters now that the Disney purchase is happening.

Summary: Jean Grey begins to develop incredible powers that corrupt and turn it into a Dark Phoenix. Now the X-Men will have to decide if the life of a team member is worth more than all the people living in the world.

Dark Phoenix, directed by Simon Kinberg, stars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Sophie Turner, Jennifer Lawrence, and Nicholas Hoult. It will be released on June 7, 2019.

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