The Real Reason ‘X-Men: Dark Phoenix’ Got Pushed Back Revealed

20th Century Fox switched up several of their upcoming movie release dates, including the anticipated Dark Phoenix film, and now we understand more of why.

The upcoming X-Men sequel recently released its first trailer, and while it left some fans mixed here in the states, evidently in China it crushed. Thus Fox shifted it from its previous release date to a new one of June 7, 2019, so it could take advantage of that strong response and gain more premium theaters. It’s the same reason that Fox moved Alita to February 14th, 2019 (Dark Phoenix’s old release date), as that will make it the (if not one of ) the first movies released after the Chinese New Year, allowing it to get better screenings in China (via Variety).

For Dark Phoenix, this is the second release date delay, as the film originally held a release date of November 2018, but then was moved into the February 14th (or Valentine’s Day) slot. Now it will hit on June 7th, 2019, and hopefully, the third time is the charm.

While fans have to wait a bit longer for the movie, this will hopefully be the take on the Phoenix Saga that fans have been waiting for. To that end, Director Simon Kinberg wanted to embrace the more cosmic aspects of the story.

“I always look to the comics obviously as the touchstones for the movies, and as you know and all fans know there is a lot of cosmic, extraterrestrial stories in the X-Men lore,” Kinberg told IGN. “It’s not something that we’ve explored in the past. It’s something we certainly begin to explore in this movie and if it’s appropriate to whatever the next movies would be then I would absolutely do that. It’s something I think audiences have almost grown accustomed to now given that the Marvel [MCU] movies are so often now intergalactic.”

You can find the official description for Dark Phoenix below.

“In Dark Phoenix, the X-Men face their most formidable and powerful foe: one of their own, Jean Grey. During a rescue mission in space, Jean is nearly killed when she is hit by a mysterious cosmic force. Once she returns home, this force not only makes her infinitely more powerful, but far more unstable. Wrestling with this entity inside her, Jean unleashes her powers in ways she can neither comprehend nor contain. With Jean spiraling out of control, and hurting the ones she loves most, she begins to unravel the very fabric that holds the X-Men together. Now, with this family falling apart, they must find a way to unite — not only to save Jean’s soul, but to save our very planet from aliens who wish to weaponize this force and rule the galaxy.”

Dark Phoenix hits theaters on June 7th, 2019.

Do you agree with Fox’s decision to move the release date for Dark Phoenix? Let us know in the comments!