As we near the release of X-Men: Dark Phoenix, Simon Kinberg reveals big changes from the comics to the movie. Speaking with Digital Spy, the director said the Hellfire Club and Lilandra won’t appear in the last installment to Fox’s X-Men film franchise. Which also means Jessica Chastain’s mysterious unnamed character isn’t who we might have suspected.
“I think if I had four hours to tell this story I would’ve included the Hellfire Club, I might’ve included Lilandra,” he said. “Because I wanted it to be so focused on Jean and I wanted to really tell a character story a little differently… In the past it’s been a little more horizontal, meaning there was a breadth of character, there was a bunch of characters. In this one I wanted to go a little more vertical…I wanted to go deep with our main characters, and especially with Jean.”
RELATED – New Dark Phoenix TV Spot Teases the X-Men’s Final Battle
Then the director revealed his major concern was not to “draw away” from Jean Grey’s sudden transformation.
“So while I loved the Hellfire characters and their role in the Dark Phoenix saga in the comics, and I loved the Lilandra storyline in the comics, all of those felt like they were going to start to compete with the main story of Jean and her emotional crack-up and the break-up of the X-Men family,” Kinberg added. “And I didn’t want to draw away from that main emotional through-line.”
X-Men: Dark Phoenix soars into theaters on June 7. Would you have wanted to see the Hellfire Club and Lilandra making their appearance in this movie? Would you have wanted a four-hour runtime to squeeze them in? Let us know in the comments section below.
