A new Dark Phoenix trailer dropped in the dead of night this week and gave us another look at how Sophie Turner’s Jean Grey will transform into her darkest, most cosmically-empowered self on the big screen for the second time in the character’s cinematic history. But a fan also spotted something peculiar…
The trailer features a number of shots of Jean in all her vascular Phoenix glory which bear a distressing resemblance to a few shots from X-Men: The Last Stand, the last movie that tried (and failed) to adapt the Dark Phoenix Saga. All of the chaos and destruction seems to be precisely what Jessica Chastain’s mysterious extraterrestrial character wants, but it’s something the Earth’s human population is none too pleased about.
At one point in the trailer, all of the film’s mutants (save for Jean) are being transported by armed officers on what appears to be an armoured tank. Wired UK writer Matt Kamen spotted three very familiar letters on their uniforms. If you look closely they read “MCU” which, as Kamen pointed out, could stand for “mutant containment unit.” But it could also be a clever nod to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Disney’s recent acquisition of 20th Century Fox and the cinematic rights to the X-Men.
It would be absolutely wild if Dark Phoenix somehow managed to end in such a way that would make it possible to tie Marvel and Fox’s respective cinematic universes together. Keyword being “wild,” which here means “improbable, impractical, and probably not for the best if we’re being honest.”
Surprisingly, the trailer’s filled with a fair amount of footage from throughout the movie that, while decontextualized, gives you a general sense of what’s going to go down. The X-Men are going up into space and after a freak accident that should leave Jean dead, she seemingly comes back to life, albeit now imbued with the destructive powers of the Phoenix. The newest trailer strongly suggests that in a moment where the Phoenix takes over her personality, Jean might accidentally kill Mystique, leading the other X-Men to accept the fact that Jean might be a threat to be taken out.
When Dark Phoenix hits theatres on June 6, it might be one of the last times we see this incarnation of the X-Men before they’re gobbled up by the House of Mouse, and it’ll be interesting to see what happens to this gaggle of MCU captors.