The “X-Men” franchise looked like it was in trouble for a minute. “X-Men: Apocalypse” was a disappointment financially when compared to its predecessor “X-Men: Days Of Future Past” (it earned 28% less worldwide) and all its stars, Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender and perhaps to a lesser extent, James McAvoy (who seemed like he might stick around) all appeared to be leaving the series now that their contracts were up. Without them, the series would be left with liked, but still unproven box office stars like Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan, Nicholas Hoult and more.
But the narrative of the next film in the series, “X-Men: Dark Phoenix,” is turning around rather quickly and they’ve either written a great script or Fox possesses a dump truck full of money. Jessica Chastain is set to star as a villain, Fassbender and McAvoy are returning as Magneto and Professor Xavier respectively, and after swearing up and down she was never coming back and that hated her Mystique make-up, Lawrence has somehow been convinced to rejoin the series. Money talks.
Another new X-Men character is joining the fold however and that’s going to be the mutant Dazzler. Dazzler has the ability to convert sound vibrations into light and energy beams, but was also a disco and rock star; that was kind of her secret identity. The character made a brief cameo appearance on a record album which Jean Grey (Turner) and Cyclops (Sheridan) are shown holding at a music store in ‘Apocalypse,’ but the scenes was cut from the theatrical release (but are available in the home video release version).
There’s no word on who is going to play Dazzler yet, but as joked about in the past, she’s almost certainly not going to be played by Taylor Swift. In fact, EW says the character will only have a small role in the film and there’s no plans for Swift to play the character right now (or probably ever). ‘Dark Phoenix’ will be directed by longtime ‘X-Men’ writer/producer Simon Kinberg and it’ll be interesting to see how a producer that has never helmed a film will do trying to mount a huge blockbuster.
Some fans have already complained that Dazzler wasn’t part of the ‘Dark Phoenix’ storyline in the comics, but that’s a little silly when you stop and think nearly every comic book storyline employed in movies (including ‘Days Of Future Past’ and ‘Apocalypse’) are almost always a loose adaptation — the comic book is used as a jumping off point to tell a new tale. Whatever the case, fans of deep cut ‘X-Men’ characters will be happy to finally see Dazzler on screen. “X-Men: Dark Phoenix” is due in theaters next year on November 2, 2018.
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