‘X-Men: Dark Phoenix’ Director Reveals Why They Kill SPOILER

Dark Phoenix is not going to be like other X-Men films, something fans quickly learned after the newest trailer revealed the death of an X-Man.

Spoilers incoming for Dark Phoenix, so you’ve been warned.

The new trailer for Dark Phoenix reveals an extended scene of Jean returning to her home town and being confronted by the X-Men, but things go south quickly. Jennifer Lawrence‘s Mystique attempts to get close and reach out to Jean, but Jean loses control and ends up hitting her with a shockwave, one that unfortunately kills her.

Lawrence has been a key part of the new X-Men films, so her character’s death is a big secret that the movie has managed to keep thus far. Director Simon Kinberg recently explained why it was best to reveal a secret like that in the trailer.

“Well, the thought process behind that was to primarily show that this is a movie that is unlike other X-Men movies,” Kinberg told EW. “It’s a movie where shocking things happen, where intense, dramatic things happen. People don’t just fall off buildings and dust themselves off and walk away. There’s a reality to this movie and a consequence to this movie. Even more than that, it was to show that Jean/Dark Phoenix is genuinely a threat to everyone, including the X-Men.”

It wasn’t the easiest decision to make for Kinberg, as Lawrence is a good friend. That said, it unquestionably has an impact on just about every character in the film, giving the death meaning.

“I had a lot of emotions about it,” Kinberg said. “I was obviously sad about it, as Jen’s friend, and also as a fan of Jen as an actress. But I felt it was the strongest, most dramatic thing for the movie, and sometimes you have to make those kinds of hard decisions to service the larger story. And the larger story really is Jean cracking up, losing control because she’s more powerful than anyone else in the world. To dramatize that properly, you have to show real loss, you have to show real pain and show real threat and menace. I didn’t want to do that by her blowing up a building with anonymous people in it. It had to feel really personal for the X-Men, and I wanted it to be something that would fracture the X-Men as well. Mystique is someone who in our universe has been part of the X-Men and has been part of Magneto’s world. Her death impacts literally everybody.”

Dark Phoenix hits theaters on June 7th.

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