Dark Phoenix WonderCon Panel and Footage Recap (SPOILERS)

Author’s Note: Friday’s WonderCon panel made clear a certain character’s fate. This maybe obvious to some already but unknown to others. Also, some other major Dark Phoenix plot twists were revealed at today’s panel. Please read at your own risk.

20th Century Fox was out in force with one of the major headlining panels for Friday at WonderCon with the X-Men: Dark Phoenix panel. Interestingly enough, it was announced before the panel that there would be no accompanying Q&A session. Gee, I wonder why.

The panel was opened by writer-director Simon Kinberg and producer Hutch Parker. When asked out the movie ends, Kinberg pointedly joked, “Everyone dies and turns into dust.” He also talked about feeling like they had earned the right to tell the amazing, seminal Dark Phoenix story again, despite how badly it was messed up the first time when Kinberg was involved with X-Men: The Last Stand. Kinberg also reinforced how this is movie that takes the X-Men in a new direction the franchise has never gone before, as they were influenced by the cosmic storylines of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. As a result, this is the first time in franchise history that there’s an “alien” (Note: He said “alien,” as in one singular entity), an this is the first time the X-Men go into space.

First, they introduced a major opening sequence close to the start of the movie, as the X-Men go on a mission in space. This appears to be the mission inspired by the early parts of The Dark Phoenix Saga from X-Men Vol 1 #101 when the Phoenix made its first appearance. It begins in the early 1990s, the X-Men are preparing for an orbital space mission, and the Black Bird launches from out of the basketball court. Professor Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) is communicating with NASA through Cerebro. It appears the X-Men now have stronger relations with the United States government at this point.

Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) is leading the team on the mission and piloting the jet along with Beast (Nicholas Hoult). Storm (Alexandra Shipp), Quicksilver (Evan Peters), Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee), Cyclops (Tye Sheridan) and Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) are also onboard for the mission. As they launch, Cyclops gives Jean a consoling touch of her shoulder, and Jean puts her hand over his.

The Black Bird reaches Earth’s orbit and spots the damaged NASA shuttle. It’s stuck in a dangerous spin, and the X-Men notice what appears to be a strange looking “solar flare” off in the distance. If you want a description of the “solar flare,” it basically looks like a mini-Galactus cloud from the 2007 Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer movie. Mystique wants Nightcrawler to bamf inside, but he can’t since the shuttle is moving too quickly and he can’t see through the windows.

Mystique directs Cyclops to launch an optic blast to disable the shuttle’s blitzing thruster to get it to stop spinning. Cyclops then goes into a lower deck and operates a gun like turret he can direct his blast through to smash the shuttle thruster. That enables Nightcrawler and quicksilver to teleport into the shuttle to rescue the crew. Storm uses her powers to plug up some of the holes in the shuttle with ice. After that, Quicksilver and Nightcrawler teleport the imperiled crew members into the Black Bird. One of the astronauts notes that their commander is still stuck inside the shuttle near the airlock. Mystique believes it’s too dangerous and is ready to call it a day.

Professor X overrides Mystique’s order and instead points out that Jean will be able to rescue the commander due to her expanding powers. Jean believes she can help, but she has to do it from the inside. Mystique reluctantly allows it, but she counts it down to 30 seconds. Nightcrawler returns to the craft with Jean. They are able to rescue the commander and get back to the shuttle. However, they are too late as the mini-Galactus Cloud (Hint: I fully believe this is very much the Phoenix Force and the “alien” Kinberg referenced earlier. I believe based on this footage that the Phoenix is being treated as an alien force or entity this time around.) envelopes the shuttle with Jean inside. The cloud appears to get sucked or absorbed into Jean, and there’s a massive explosion around her. After it dissipates, Jean is still outside in the vacuum of space. It appears whatever that cloud was has entered or merged with her body. She returns back to the Black Bird and embraces Cyclops, wanting them all to return home.

The team safely makes it back on Terra Firma, and the X-Men are given a hero’s welcome. Men, women and children all appear to love and respect the X-Men, and the government appears to approve as well.

The team then makes it back to the X-Mansion, where they are also given a hero’s welcome by the younger students at the school. For whatever reason, Beast has taken back on his human form before entering the school. Even more strange is how Mystique resumes her non-blue, Jennifer Lawrence-like appearance from X-Men: Apocalypse upon returning. Why would Mystique and Beast want to appear and look more conventionally human, or I suppose not blue, after returning to the X-Mansion? They are among other mutants and peers? The X-Mansion more than any other is a place where they should be able to be themselves and not have to hide what they are. It’s a highly questionable scene.

After they return, you can see Quicksilver bragging to the other kids that he basically did everything himself. Mystique then meets with Xavier, still in her non-blue form. She’s angry that he put the whole team at stake and almost got Jean killed. Xavier points out all the progress they’ve made over the years. He points out these missions are done in effort to keep them safe and how they are always one bad day from losing it all. Before leaving, an angry Mystique says (paraphrasing), “You know, the women are starting to save the men around here a lot. You might want to think about changing the name to X-Women.” You sure told off Charles Xavier there, Mystique.

That ended the first reel of footage. The panel then brings out the rest of the cast in attendance, including Tye Sheridan, Sophie Turner, Evan Peters, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Alexandra Shipp, and Nicholas Hoult. Jessica Chastain and Jennifer Lawrence were not in attendance. The moderator joked and asked Sophie Turner how Game of Thrones ends, who did not have answer. There was nothing especially revealing or exciting about the rest of the panel, save for one additional sequence that was shown.

The next scene comes later in the film and is mainly set in New York City and shows the team at the worst of times. Xavier has finished with Cerebro and calls Nightcrawler, Cyclops and Storm into a meeting. He wants Nightcrawler to teleport Cyclops and Xavier to Jean’s location, which they learned from Magneto (Michael Fassbender). Magneto plans to kill Jean out of revenge. The scene pretty much confirms what many have already realized from the trailers. At some point, Jean Grey, or the Phoenix, murders Mystique. Magneto now wants to kill Jean in retaliation. Storm wants to go, but Xavier shuts her down, not wanting to lose anyone else. Cyclops asks Storm to come with them instead, pointing out that they need them.

Nightcrawler takes the group to Jean’s location, which appears to be hotel near Central Park. The X-Men confront Magneto and his new Brotherhood, and plot twist, Beast has now joined Magneto! I guess Beast wasn’t happy with Jean killing Mystique either and also wants revenge. Also, Magneto is joined by Selene (Kota Eberhardt) and I believe the character Red Lotus (Andrew Stehlin). Xavier wants to avoid a fight and showing mutants fighting in the street. Magneto is undeterred, proclaiming that Jean will die. Cyclops shows he’s serious by dropping an F-bomb, “Touch her, and I’ll f***ing kill you.”

Eventually, the two sides break out in a fight on the streets, stopping traffic as the X-Men try to stop Magneto and the Brotherhood from reaching Jean. Red Lotus basically using his dreadlocks as a whip-like weapon. Selene appears to have telepathic abilities, which Xavier attempts to neutralize. Beast and Cyclops scuffle on top of cars. Eventually, Magneto rips a subway car from underground and smashes it into a bus. He then makes his way into the hotel where Jean is staying and using the subway car to block the X-Men from getting in.

Jean Grey is making her way toward the exit. Jessica Chastain’s still unnamed character is there with her. She tells Jean that people are coming to try and kill her, but she should fight back. My basic assumption is this. Chastain is basically is a visual manifestation or embodiment of the Phoenix Force. I don’t believe she’s Lilandra. I don’t think she’s a Skrull. I simply think she’s there in Jean’s head acting like the devil on her shoulder, and she’s persuading Jean to use her Dark Phoenix powers. In short, my prediction is this: Jessica Chastain is playing the Phoenix Force.

Now, let me also just say, I could be 100% off here. It’s just my theory based on what’s been shown. She could be some sort of new alien threat for the story. She doesn’t appear to be Shi’ar or Lilandra. Maybe she, but none of the footage today made that clear.

Jean Grey arrives into the lobby and sees Magneto. She mentions that Magneto cast her out before and now wants to kill her. An angry Magneto attempts to use his powers to use a metal railing as a weapon and stab Jean through her eye. Jean uses her powers to stop the metal and lifts Magneto into the air. She then starts crushing Magneto’s helmet around his before the clip comes to an end.

Yeesh. So there was quite a few red flags. Granted, Kinberg said not all of the visuals from the second reel were complete, but the special effects in the first clip were nothing to write home about. Granted, both Black Panther and Captain Marvel had their bits of shoddy FX work. But what’s strong is that the special effects in Dark Phoenix looked even worse than X-Men 2, which came out almost 16 years ago. It’s almost like topnotch visual effects have taken a sharp decline in recent years.

Not only that, the movie was supposed to come out months ago and was constantly delayed. How can the effects look this bad at this point?

Jennifer Lawrence is in total “Don’t Give a F***” mode. Her scenes that were shown looked to have her completely phoning it in. It’s bad enough Mystique is made into a noble hero and leader of the X-Men in the recent movies, but Lawrence simply appears to be in “Give me a paycheck and you better not make me wear all that stupid makeup and prosthetics.”

I spoke to MCUCosmic.com’s Jeremy Conrad after the panel, and he said it best about Beast. He’s basically a “werewolf” now, and he can change back and forth whenever he wants. Beast being able to switch from his “Beast” form to a non-blue, non-furry form makes no sense. It’s never really explained. How does Beast do this? Why does Beast do this? Why does he adopt this form when he’s at home in the X-Mansion? In the comics, Hank McCoy or Beast’s change was permanent. He ultimately had to come to grips with it and accept it. He didn’t have the option of taking a serum or medicine that made him not blue and furry whenever he wants. Also, Hoult is still flatter than Diet Coke as Beast. He has none of the charm, wit or personality of the classic character.

Why does Mystique change her form the minute she steps into the door? And yes, I understand there is a practical reason for doing this. It saves the actors time in makeup to not have to wear it all. And they are probably more comfortable performing without it, but that’s not logical for their characters in the film. Not to mention, them wanting to look less like “mutants” in their own home was ridiculous and seems to be a major betrayal of their characters.

In X-Men: Evolution, Professor Xavier gave Nightcrawler an image inducer, that would hide his blue fur, skin, tail, hands and feet. At that point in the story, Xavier was still trying to keep the existence of mutants a secret from society and wanted the school to be more incognito in effort to try and keep them safe and hidden from those who would harm them. When Kurt is given the inducer, he’s so excited because he can look Normal. Xavier then responds, “Normal is what you truly are. Never think otherwise. This is just a disguise, a disguise so you’ll not be persecuted by those who do not understand your gifts.”

Maybe this explanation is a little dated in 2019, but the show at least attempted to explain why Kurt would have and use an image inducer. This film does not, and the mutant heroes wanting to appear what they think is normal and hiding who they truly are in front of other mutants, sorry, but it’s wrong and it goes against the fabric of these character.

It’s highly reminiscent of X-Men 3, when Rogue “cures” herself with the mutant cure, that might not even be a permanent solution. That was a slap in the face to the franchise and Rogue, and it was written by the same writer and director this film. Almost 13 years later with Dark Phoenix, and Simon Kinberg still hasn’t learned.