It’s been no secret that Jennifer Lawrence was growing tired of her role as Mystique in the X-Men movies — the actress went into the last film, X-Men: Apocalypse, teasing that it could be her last with the franchise.
However, fans have since learned that Lawrence’s Mystique will return for the upcoming X-Men: Dark Phoenix, and the actress recently explained why while out promoting her new psychological thriller mother!
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“My contract was up, I didn’t have to do another one, but if I didn’t do another one, what would her story be?” Jennifer Lawrence explained to Digital Spy.
“I felt like I owed it to the fans, and I owed it to the character to follow her journey, to be fair to the movies,” Lawrence continued, “and not be like, ‘I don’t want to do another X-Men!’ And then I just never show up and everyone’s very confused about the Mystique they’ve been following for the last three films.”
For the cynical fans out there: the proverbial “dump truck full of money” may have been factor as well.
When last we saw Mystique, she had taken the bold step of going from independent revolutionary to once again fighting alongside and even leading a team of fledgling X-Men. Of course, Mystique’s allegiances are as malleable as her shape-changing body, so there’s no telling how she could factor into the cosmic-themed storyline of X-Men: Dark Phoenix.
X-Men: Dark Phoenix will be in theaters on November 2, 2018. Before that, we’ll get Deadpool 2 on June 1, 2018.