‘Dark Phoenix’ Director Reveals Why He Introduced the Classic X-Men Costumes

The X-Men movie franchise has regularly featured nods to its comic book origins, yet the overall tone of the franchise attempts to lean into the realm of realism, at least in regards to the mutants’ costumes. With X-Men: Dark Phoenix, director Simon Kinberg leaned more heavily into the classic and colorful attire of the team to fulfill a desire he’s had to honor the comic books for 15 years.

“I’ve been waiting to do that from the first time I ever got a call from Avi Arad,” Kinberg recently shared with Empire. “Avi and Kevin Feige were the chief two people that called me about an X-Men movie 15 years ago. We talked about the costumes, and what Bryan Singer had done I understood and liked, but they were very different to what I had grown up seeing in the comics. So I was excited finally as the director to have more of a say and clothe them in their classic costumes.”

The characters debuted in the ’60s and, in true comic book fashion, brought with them bright and colorful costumes that made perfect sense for the medium. By the time the idea of adapting the characters into a film came around in the late ’90s, 20th Century Fox wanted to stray away from the neon camp of Batman and Robin, which had come out a few years earlier and was a big disappointment.

When the X-Men finally suited up in tactical gear, the outfits were more functional than fashionable, looking more like something a professional motorcyclist would wear on the road. When Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) mocked the outfits in the film, Cyclops (James Marsden) even had a dig about if he’d be more comfortable in “yellow spandex,” which his character wore in the comics.

To develop the outfits, Kinberg brought in a costume designer from Logan to help find the right blend of realism and comic book aesthetics.

“I had a board full of my favorite images from the comics, and then I worked with our costume designer, who also worked on Logan, to create something that was incredibly loyal to the comics and then also had a little bit of its own feel,” Kinberg noted. “There’s little nuances from the cartoons, the comics, from whatever it is that if you were a fan you grew up reading or watching.”

Fans can see the costumes in action when X-Men: Dark Phoenix hits theaters on February 14, 2019.

How do you feel about the costumes so far? Let us know in the comments below!

[H/T Empire]