During an interview with IGN, writer/producer Simon Kinberg dismissed the idea of a longer X-Men: Dark Phoenix director’s cut in the wake of the announcement that the Justice League Snyder Cut will be coming to HBO Max as well as David Ayer’s interest in a Suicide Squad director’s cut, saying that the movie that was released “was ultimately my vision for the film.”
RELATED: Netflix Wins Simon Kinberg’s Spec Script Here Comes The Flood
“That vision did change over the span of making the movie,” Kinberg continued. “There are other scenes that we shot, just as there are a lot of other scenes in [Days of Future Past] that we shot and didn’t end up using. There were scenes we shot for that film and an ending that was quite different than the ending that was in the theatrical release. To release [a Kinberg Cut], it wouldn’t be just be like we splice those scenes back in, because those scenes were never completed because of visual effects and sound – all of the technical aspects that go into completing films of this scale. It would take a whole lot of work, but I appreciate the support.”
The filmmaker added that they originally intended to release Dark Phoenix as two movies, but that Fox elected to condense the story into one film.
“With every movie, there are things you wish you did differently. On every movie, there are things you thought were great and perfect, and then you watch them and didn’t think they were as strong as you imagined and you go a different way. Dark Phoenix was a hard movie because, in its initial concept when I wrote it, it was meant to be a two-part film. And then it suddenly became a one-part movie for reasons that weren’t of my doing. Having to create around that massive change was a challenge in itself. All these movies are uniquely challenging,” Kinberg said.
Kinberg also commented on the X-Men potentially joining the MCU following Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox, saying that one of the things the MCU does well is staying “really loyal” to the comics. “They also are very unafraid of a more supernatural or science fiction tonality to their movies. They don’t feel like they need to ground them so much in a sort of physics-based reality. I think there’s something very great and liberating and spectacular about that. I think the X-Men could be very cool if you brought in science fiction elements and even the beyond Earth elements of the X-Men. That’s something as a fan I would love to see, because I don’t know that we’ve ever fully done that in a fully committed way in the Fox X-Men canon.”
RELATED: Sophie Turner Would “Kill” to Play Jean Grey Again
In Dark Phoenix, the X-Men face their most formidable and powerful foe: one of their own, Jean Grey. During a rescue mission in space, Jean is nearly killed when she is hit by a mysterious cosmic force. Once she returns home, this force not only makes her infinitely more powerful but far more unstable. Wrestling with this entity inside her, Jean unleashes her powers in ways she can neither comprehend nor contain. With Jean spiraling out of control and hurting the ones she loves most, she begins to unravel the very fabric that holds the X-Men together. Now, with this family falling apart, they must find a way to unite — not only to save Jean’s soul but to save our very planet from aliens who wish to weaponize this force and rule the galaxy.
Dark Phoenix brings back much of the cast of the new films including James McAvoy (Professor X), Michael Fassbender (Magneto), Jennifer Lawrence (Mystique), Nicholas Hoult (Beast), Alexandra Shipp (Storm), Tye Sheridan (Cyclops), Kodi Smit-McPhee (Nightcrawler), Sophie Turner (Jean Grey) and Evan Peters (Quicksilver). Simon Kinberg wrote and directed the film, marking his directorial debut. He produced alongside Lauren Shuler Donner and Hutch Parker.
