Official 'Dark Phoenix' trailer arrives post-leak, shows off Sophie Turner's X-Men heroine in fiery form

Nick Schager
·Writer

A day after a Russian version leaked online, and following months of production delays, Fox’s latest X-Men sequel, Dark Phoenix, has finally debuted its first official trailer. This will likely be the final entry in this iteration of the long-running X-Men franchise, since after nearly two decades with Fox, the heroes will soon be joining Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe (thanks to the merger of the media titans) and presumably reimagined with an all-new cast and storyline continuity. If this is the series’ final hurrah, it should be an explosive one, as the long-awaited clip reunites the entire mutant superhero squad in an all-out battle involving Game of Thrones’ Sophie Turner’s fiery telepath Jean Grey.

As promised by Turner earlier this morning on Instagram (in what appears to be a direct damage-control response to the aforementioned unofficial leak), the actress premiered the Dark Phoenix clip Wednesday night on The Late Late Show With James Corden.

Fulfilling expectations, the preview finds Jean Grey being cared for — and then fleeing — Professor X (James McAvoy), who’s apparently lied to her about the true cause of the auto accident that killed her parents. It appears Jean’s subsequent hurt and anger is thus partially Professor X’s fault, and it eventually drives her to Magneto (Michael Fassbender), from whom she hopes to get “permission” to take up arms against her X-Men comrades, including Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), Beast (Nicholas Hoult), Storm (Alexandra Shipp), and Grey’s eventual paramour Cyclops (Tye Sheridan).

Following the general beats of the classic Marvel comic-book storyline (which was originally used, in a somewhat different form and context, in 2003’s X2 and 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand), the new film will focus on Grey’s tormented struggle, after an interstellar accident, to harness her immense powers — all of which, as the trailer makes clear, culminates with her igniting into the Dark Phoenix, a deadly adversary for the X-Men who could end the world.

Here’s the full plot synopsis, which Fox also released ahead of the trailer:

“In Dark Phoenix, the X-Men face their most formidable and powerful foe: one of their own, Jean Grey. During a rescue mission in space, Jean is nearly killed when she is hit by a mysterious cosmic force. Once she returns home, this force not only makes her infinitely more powerful, but far more unstable. Wrestling with this entity inside her, Jean unleashes her powers in ways she can neither comprehend nor contain. With Jean spiraling our of control, and hurting the ones she loves most, she begins to unravel the very fabric that holds the X-Men together. Now, with this family falling apart, they must find a way to unite – not only to save Jean’s soul, but to save our very planet from aliens who wish to weaponize this force and rule the galaxy.”

So far, online response has been mixed:

Also featuring a quick shot of Jessica Chastain in a role that is yet to be properly identified, this first Fox-sanctioned look at Dark Phoenix should help quell some of the troublesome noise — caused by release date changes and reshoots — that has recently engulfed the project.

Dark Phoenix arrives in theaters on Feb. 14.

Read more at Yahoo Entertainment:

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