WhenDark Phoenixhits theaters next month, it’ll be with an ending that’s significantly different from the one writer/directorSimon Kinbergoriginally intended. We learned last summer that theX-Menmovie was going back to Montreal for reshoots, but sources told usat the timethat contrary to reports of a whopping three months of additional photography, they were simply going back for two and a half weeks of reshoots to work on the third act. While at the time sources told us these reshoots weren’t extensive, it appears that may not have been exactly true.
It was revealed in April that theDark Phoenixending was changedin reshoots from a space setting to a climax that finds the X-Men kidnapped and onboard a military train, and now Charles Xavier actorJames McAvoytellsYahooUK(viaThe Playlist) the ending was changed because it turned out to be too similar to another superhero movie:
“The end [ofDark Phoenix] changed a hell of a lot,” said McAvoy. “The finalehadto change. There was a lot of overlap and parallels with another superhero movie that came out re—a while ago. And we had no idea that we were…”
If you watch the video, McAvoy seems primed to say “came out recently” before changing course in his response, and he declines to name the movie that was deemed too similar when asked by the interviewer. But the good folks at The Playlist did some sleuthing and narrowed it down toCaptain Marvel,Thor: Ragnarok, andAvengers: Infinity War, withCaptain Marvelseeming to be the most likely candidate.
Indeed, not only did the third act ofDark Phoenixchange, but the design of the Phoenix was changed to be less flame-y and more cosmic, which would suggest a resemblance toBrie Larson’s on-fire Captain Marvel at the end of that MCU film, in which she lays waste to a number of ships and baddies in space. It’s a bummer that the endings of these two movies ended up being similar, and I would not envy Kinberg’s position here, but I’m glad they got to go back and rework it.
All of the actors involved withDark Phoenixpraise the new ending as superior in the film, withJessica Chastaingoing so far as to say her character changed quite a lot with the new third act. We’ll see for ourselves whenDark Phoenixhits theaters on June 7th, but I’m mighty curious to see this new third act in motion.
