Did Fox Just Tie 'X-Men: Dark Phoenix' to 'Deadpool 2'?

The first trailer for X-Men: Dark Phoenix is now out, and X-Men movie fans are buzzing about the first footage from the film, and all the new revelations that have come with it. While all of the Dark Phoenix trailer Easter eggs are still being sorted through, there is one that is catching some immediate attention: a small but important Easter egg that connects X-Men: Dark Phoenix to Deadpool 2!

Back when Deadpool 2 came out, one of the many Easter eggs uncovered in the film was a name written on a card in Chinese, early on in the film when Deadpool is hired to take out a gang over in Asia, as part of the opening montage of mercenary work. Before attacking the gang, Deadpool looks at the card (presumed to be a bank card), and the name in Chinese characters translates to "Red Lotus." Red Lotus is of course a rather obscure X-Men character -- who also happens to appear in X-Men: Dark Phoenix, as you can see below!

Standing behind Storm is actor Andrew Stehlin, who is listed as playing "Red Lotus," aka Paul Hark. In the comics, Red Lotus is a mutant with enhanced physical abilities and a mastery of martial arts. He was heir to a Chinese Triad gang, and the murder of his grandfather was used to trick Red Lotus into being a foe of the X-Men. He later fought with them, battling to shut down mutant slave rings, even going undercover in the Hellfire Club to do so.

This connective thread between Deadpool 2 and X-Men: Dark Phoenix may actually tell the backstory of Red Lotus from the source material: Lotus fights with Magneto's Brotherhood in the era of Dark Phoenix, eventually breaks off, inherits a Triad gang, and hires an assassin (Deadpool) to take out the competition. It's a small but nice example of how the X-Men movie universe could be connected, even when it doesn't always make sense.

Deadpool 2 played fast and loose with its connective ties to the X-Men movies, including a brief cameo that brought the X-Men team of the 1970s/1990s era of the current films into the modern timeline of the Deadpool films. Of course, X-Men movie continuity is so twisted up at this point that it's probably for the best that they just go ahead and make the crossover connections wherever they see fit, chronology be damned.

X-Men: Dark Phoenix hits theaters on February 14, 2019. The New Mutants will follow on August 2, 2019.

[H/T IGN]