‘X-Men: Dark Phoenix’: Jessica Chastain’s Character Name Revealed

The name of Jessica Chastain’s character in X-Men: Dark Phoenix has been revealed.

Or, at least what she goes by. Twentieth Century Fox has revealed that Chastain’s character goes by the name “Smith.” Considering Smith is a shapeshifter, there’s a fair chance she’s using an alias.

When Chastain was cast in X-Men: Dark Phoenix the assumption was that she playing Lilandra. Lilandra is the lover of Charles Xavier and Majestrix of the Shi’ar Empire. The Shi’ar play a vital role in “The Dark Phoenix Saga” that inspires the film’s plot. Chastain later dispelled those assumptions.

The news that Chastain is playing a shapeshifter has led to some speculation that she’s a Skrull. The Skrull are a race of shapeshifters who control a vast cosmic empire in the Marvel Universe. The cosmic nature of the Phoenix Force would lend itself to alien adversaries. It is unclear why Fox would choose to use the Skrulls over the Shi’ar.

Another theory is that Smith is actually a gender-swapped version of Mastermind. Mastermind is an original member of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants in the comics. He returned later and used his mind control and illusion powers to manipulate Jean Grey. This mental assault led to the emergence of the Dark Phoenix and Jean’s loss of control. This theory suggests that Smith’s “shapeshifting” is actually her changing her appearance using illusion.

X-Men: Dark Phoenix currently has a 3.89 out of 5 ComicBook.com User Anticipation Rating. That makes it the eighth most anticipated upcoming comic book movie among ComicBook.com users. Let us know how excited you are for X-Men: Dark Phoenix by giving the movie your own personal ComicBook.com User Anticipation Rating below.

X-Men: Dark Phoenix opens in theaters on November 2, 2018.

Other upcoming X-Men movies include The New Mutants on April 13, 2018, the untitled Deadpool sequel on June 2, 2018, and Gambit on February 14, 2019.