Honestly, bit of a weird flex for Fox to want to remind people of X3 in any way in the run up to this movie.
Fox has just dropped the new poster for Dark Phoenix, ahead of a trailer set to appear tomorrow night. But while the poster itself is pretty typical for the X-Men franchise—oh look, they did that thing, with the X, again!—perhaps the most interesting part of it all is that Jean Grey is sporting two looks at once as she’s divided between her normal self and the Phoenix force. One is the snazzy new X-Uniforms inspired by Frank Quietly’s New X-Men design in the comics. The other, however is a cute little throwback to X-Men movie history:
Because, yup. It’s basically a more dressed-down version of Famke Janssen’s Phoenix attire in X3. The coat’s the main thing it borrows, given this Jean’s rocking a more casual t-shirt-and-jeans to go with it, but still!
It’s a nice throwback to Last Stand, even if it does kind of feel like a weird reminder that this X-Men prequel saga and the earlier films are meant to be part of their own bizarre, nigh-on-incomprehensible timeline. But it’s kind of a shame that the comics-costumes for the X-Men aren’t being accompanied by a take on Phoenix’s costume, too. These movies are finally getting around to putting non-Magneto mutants in comics uniforms and they’re not using one of Jean’s most iconic looks!
That, and when people are desperately hoping for a take on the Dark Phoenix Saga that isn’t as universally derided as X3 was, it’s a bold move for Dark Phoenix to remind us of it in such a big way. We’ll have to wait until tomorrow night, and then eventually June 7, to see if a comics inspiration and a nice red coat are all that Dark Phoenix is going to end up borrowing from Last Stand.
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