Dark Phoenix Cameo Features Debut of Cult-Favorite X-Men Rebel

The final film in the long-running X-Men franchise came and went without much of a commotion, as Dark Phoenix suffered numerous and lengthy delays, expensive reshoots, and then earned the lowest amount at the box office in the entire series. And while the movie was a disappointment at the box office and among critic and fan reception, there are still some awesome aspects about Dark Phoenix that went under the radar, including the debut of a fan-favorite X-Men character that no one seemed to notice when it first came out.

With the movie set to hit digital storefronts this week, a rewatch makes it clear that Dark Phoenix features the debut of the Xavier School’s perennial punk-rock rebel Quentin Quire, the only Omega-level telepath who can hang with Jean Grey. Check it out in the screen cap below.

This cameo goes by quickly, showing a pink-haired student of the school walking through the halls of the mansion. If the pink hair and hipster cut wasn’t enough of an indicator, the jacket and horn-rimmed glasses are another dead giveaway. The character goes unnamed, but any X-fan worth their salt will tell you that’s definitely Kid Omega.

Quire was recently listed as part of the X-Men relaunch for Marvel Comics by Jonathan Hickman, Pepe Larraz, and Marte Gracia, as the data page by designer Tom Muller confirmed the youngster is an Omega-level mutant living on Krakoa. While he has yet to appear in House of X or its companion series Powers of X, the character has appeared in unfinished preview pages for X-Men #1, coming later this year.

As for following up on his big screen debut, that seems unlikely in the wake of Marvel Studios taking control of the X-Men. A full-blown reboot is in order after the box office failure of Dark Phoenix, and producer Kevin Feige is going to let the franchise cool down before inserting the characters into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

But still, scenes like this make us wonder how the X-movies would have turned out if Dark Phoenix was a major hit. Given the decade-skipping nature of this new series, it would have been amazing to see a take on “Riot at Xavier’s” with millennial mutants led by the rebelling Quire. Now it seems like we’ll have to wait even longer before a story like that becomes a possibility.

Dark Phoenix hits digital HD this week on September 3rd, followed by its Blu-ray and DVD release on September 17th.