X-Men: Dark Phoenix Delayed Again to June 2019, Alita Takes February Slot

Just days after the first trailer was released with the original release date, 20th Century Fox has opted to shift the upcoming release date for X-Men: Dark Phoenix. The film has now been pushed back to a June 7, 2019 release from its previous February 14, 2019 slot. Instead, Fox will now release Alita: Battle Angel on the February date.

Deadline.com reports that film has been moved to a Summer date to give the film “a better shot to have a bigger opening in China.” The film’s trailer release reportedly had 44 million views in China alone after its first week of release online.

The reasoning for the release date change sounds like Hollywood spin. This was not the first delay for Dark Phoenix. The film was originally planned for a November 2018 release before it was pushed back to February 2019. At the time, the Hollywood spin reasoning for that delay was to give the film a “prime” launching pad since President’s Day Weekend in February was a successful release slot for Marvel-themed films such as Deadpool and Black Panther. And now the latest rumors come amid the film recently undergoing what appeared to be extensive reshoots.

June 7 was previously the launch date for the oft-delayed Gambit film, which has been in development hell for years. Dark Phoenix will now reportedly have premium screens that were previously reserved for the Gambit movie in play.

However, the new release date for Dark Phoenix puts the film against the sequel for Universal’s The Secret Life of Pets. The first film grossed $368 million domestic and $875 million worldwide. Those are numbers the main X-Men film franchise has never touched at the box office, unless you count Deadpool. Additionally, the June 7 launch puts the film a week after Godzilla: King of Monsters on May 31 and a week before Sony’s planned Men in Black reboot.

The X-Men film franchise has been no stranger to bad buzz going back years. Not to mention, Disney recently purchased 20th Century Fox and its assets, including the film rights to the X-Men series and its characters previously controlled by Fox. While not confirmed, there’s been a perception among the fan community that Dark Phoenix and other spinoffs such as New Mutants, another oft-delayed film, are getting buried to make way for mutants and X-Men being incorporated into the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the mainline Marvel Studios. Previously, Marvel Studios had little to no involvement with the X-Men films in recent years.

The Deadline report also mentioned Fox has set a December 21 release for an untitled Deadpool movie. The report is claiming this is a PG-13 version of Deadpool 2, but that is not confirmed.

Meanwhile, Gambit has been pushed back yet again from June 7, 2019 to March 13, 2020. It should be noted, 20th Century Fox even announced a release date for June 2017 for a Fantastic Four (2015) sequel. Point being, getting a release date announced is virtually meaningless for a film like this. X-Men: Dark Phoenix and New Mutants have already had several.