It's been an exciting week for fans of the X-Men franchise. The OG shared universe has moved forward with the next film, X-Men: The Dark Phoenix, in quite a few ways over the past few days. Because in addition to reportedly bringing back the full cast of Apocalypse, a director was found in the form of X-Men writer and producer Simon Kinberg. And while he and Bryan Singer have worked together many times throughout the year, many were wondering how Singer feels about handing over the directing reins. And it turns out, here's more than happy about the choice.
Bryan Singer is pretty active on his various social media accounts, routinely giving X-Men updates to the fandom. Regarding Simon Kinberg's direction of The Dark Phoenix, Singer took to Instagram to reveal his thoughts.
Classy move, Bryan Singer. In order to unite the fandom to back Simon Kinberg's full control over the next X-Men film, Singer officially passed the torch to his successor. He even tagged it #torchpass for safe measure.
It should be interesting to see how Simon Kinberg approaches X-Men: The Dark Phoenix, now that he has a more important role in the franchise. Kinberg has already produced and/or written every X-Men film since The Last Stand, so he's very involved in the franchise as a whole. Although considering how divisive the X-Men films can be, it's unclear if this experience is a hinderance or advantage in Kinberg's outing as a director.
That being said, Simon Kinberg will have a significant amount of power in The Dark Phoenix, as he'll be writing, producing, and directing the film. This single vision may allow the next X-Men movie to be a more focused and deliberate big screen outing, as there will be less cooks in the kitchen. Hopefully this will help the film not be so overcrowded and basic as some of the past movies (I'm looking at you, Apocalypse).
That being said, X-Men: The Dark Phoenix looks like it's going to be a game changer for the long running franchise. Much like the MCU, X-Men may be headed to space, as the iconic Dark Phoenix storyline typically focuses on Jean's possession by a cosmic spirit known as The Phoenix. And with Jessica Chastain possibly joining the film as Shi'ar empress Lilandra, all signs point to an intergalactic adventure. While space adventures are fairly common in the X-Men comics, every silver screen adventure has been wholly focused on planet Earth.
Utilizing a new setting and characters in The Dark Phoenix may grant Simon Kinberg the ability to make bold plot choices, especially since he'll be both writing an directing the movie. And hopefully what results is a better quality X-Men film, ala X-2 or Days of Future Past. Fingers crossed, because with the DCEU now on the board with Wonder Woman, there's some stiff competition coming from both DC and Marvel Studios.
Check back with us here at CinemaBlend for updates on all things X-Men. And in the meantime, check out list of upcoming X-Men films to plan your next trip to the movies.
