James McAvoy has taken to Instagram to post a first look at the cast of 20th Century Fox‘s upcoming X-Men: Dark Phoenix on the Montreal set with Canada’s very own ultra-handsome Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Those featured in the picture include McAvoy (now in Professor X cueball mode), his girlfriend Lisa Liberati, Sophie Turner (Jean Grey/Phoenix), Tye Sheridan (Cyclops), Kodi Smit-McPhee (Nightcrawler), Alexandra Shipp (Storm), producer Hutch Parker and writer/director Simon Kinberg.
As a special bonus, we also have three cast members from Fox’s other mutant movie in production, X-Men: The New Mutants, posting photos of each other from the Boston set. Check out the photos of Anya Taylor-Joy (Magik), Maisie Williams (Wolfsbane), Blu Hunt (Mirage) and Henry Zaga (Sunspot) below!
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Set to go before cameras in July, director Josh Boone (The Fault in Our Stars) has stated that The New Mutants will be “a full-fledged horror movie set within the X-Men universe,” with no costumes or supervillains. The plot is rumored to involve five teenage mutants held in a secret facility trying to get a handle on their dangerous powers. The film is shooting for a PG-13 rating, with a script by Boone and his childhood friend, producer Knate Lee (Bad Grandpa).
The New Mutants adapts the monthly comic book series of the same name that launched in 1982. Created by Chris Claremont and Bob McLeod, The New Mutants follows on a group of teenage mutants as heroes in training in the Marvel Universe. The feature is expected to be a departure from the sci-fi-action spectacle of other X-Men films and is instead being described as a “Stephen King meets John Hughes”-style horror movie.
Longtime X-Men series writer and producer Simon Kinberg will write and direct X-Men: Dark Phoenix, which will bring back the cast of X-Men: Apocalypse, including Michael Fassbender (Magneto), Jennifer Lawrence (Mystique), Nicholas Hoult (Beast), Alexandra Shipp (Storm), Tye Sheridan (Cyclops), and Kodi Smit-McPhee (Nightcrawler). Actress Jessica Chastain will play the villain of the film, Lilandra. An empress of the Shi’ar Empire, Lilandra leads an alien race that is in search of and eager to eradicate the Phoenix Force. Sophie Turner will reprise her role as Jean Grey in the film, the host of the Phoenix Force and subject of the Shi’ar’s search. The light-emitting popstar mutant Dazzler will also appear, though she remains to be cast.
Kinberg previously confirmed that the next X-Men movie would jump ahead ten years from Apocalypse, offering a 1990s setting for the sequel. The X-Men comics saw a commercial boom during the ’90s, following character redesigns by Jim Lee, which went on to be the basis for the fan-favorite animated series.
2018 is set to be a banner year for the X-Universe as Dark Phoenix will cap off the year on November 8 following Josh Boone‘s New Mutants on April 13 and Deadpool 2 on June 1.
