‘Dark Phoenix’: Is Mystique Going to Die?

The just-released Dark Phoenix first trailer seems to mark Jennifer Lawrence‘s blue-skinned X-Man for death.

As telepathic mutant Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) finds herself seduced and corrupted by the all-powerful Phoenix Force, she makes herself an enemy of the X-Men — including boyfriend Cyclops (Tye Sheridan), who can be seen attempting to convince his teammates Jean is still their friend despite an outburst that has had grave consequences.

The X-Men are gathered in the X-Mansion in their mourning best, presumably after the rainy scene that finds a soaked Beast (Nicholas Hoult) standing in front of a fresh grave — the only X-Man foregoing the cover of an umbrella.

Another moment reveals Beast bringing his head close to an unmoving Mystique — who just may be the biggest casualty of a twisted Jean now wielding the unbridled power of the dangerous cosmic force.

“This is your fault, Charles,” a distraught-looking Hank tells a regretful Charles Xavier (James McAvoy), Raven’s longest friend, before furiously smashing a bottle of alcohol out of his hands. Hank, in his human form, can also be seen making a solo trip to what looks to be Mystique’s gravesite.

The death appears to drive another wedge between Xavier and old friend Erik (Michael Fassbender), a.k.a. Magneto, a rift that seemingly finds Beast opposed Charles and his team of X-Men, including Storm (Alexandra Shipp) and Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee).

Dark Phoenix, an addendum on Lawrence’s three-movie contract that expired with 2016’s Apocalypse, was able to lure the actress back for another round because of her friendship with writer-director Simon Kinberg — and because Lawrence wanted the character to have a definitive ending.

“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?” Lawrence told Digital Spy last year.

“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, 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.”

Lawrence has long raised issue with the arduous and potentially damaging process that came with applying near full-body paint when transforming her into the blue-skinned and scaled mutant, saying, “I love these movies — it’s just the paint.”

Dark Phoenix opens February 14.