X-Men Star Famke Janssen Would Consider Returning as Jean Grey

Former X-Men franchise star Famke Janssen would “consider” reprising her role as Jean Grey, who she played across five movies between 2000 and 2013.

“If someone asks me, I might consider it,” Janssen told Variety.

The role has been filled by Game of Thrones alum Sophie Turner since 2016. Turner first appeared as a younger Jean in X-Men: Apocalypse before taking a starring turn in Dark Phoenix, which brings to screen a second time the famed comic book storyline of the same name after it was first realized in 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand.

“I’m just happy that Dark Phoenix got her own movie because she deserves it,” Janssen said.

“And it’s a really powerful and very important story in the comics, that in The Last Stand we just touched upon the tiniest part of. It was something that needed to be told as a full-blown film and now that’s happening. And it’s wonderful.”

In 2017, four years after returning as a vision haunting Logan (Hugh Jackman) in spinoff The Wolverine, Janssen said she believed she was “done” playing Jean after the franchise semi-rebooted itself with a younger cast.

“It’s the gift that keeps on — kept on giving,” Janssen said.

“I think we’re done, but it was really great while it lasted and it lasted for a long time. It’s been nothing but a pleasure working not just as Jean Grey, which was such an honor because comics were so fantastic already, but then the entire cast who I got to play with, all my fellow actors, thespians who are so talented. It was just a wonderful experience. I’m very grateful.”

Janssen later admitted she would “do anything” to return to the role down the line. “Jean Grey is a part of me,” she said. “I would definitely come back to play her whenever they ask me.”

But Marvel owner Disney, who have reclaimed the X-Men property following its $71.3 billion acquisition of Fox, is expected to reboot the franchise. Dark Phoenix‘s limp opening weekend — the lowest in the near 20-year-old franchise — all but guarantees the X-Men start fresh when they join the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige previously admitted to io9 “it’ll be a while” before the mutants are relaunched, saying Marvel is already working on its five-year plan put into motion “before any of that [Disney-Fox merger] was set.”

“So really it’s much more, for us, less about specifics of when and where [the X-Men will appear] right now and more just the comfort factor and how nice it is that they’re home. That they’re all back,” Feige said. “But it will be a very long time.”