Jessica Chastain's Character in 'X-Men: Dark Phoenix' Is an Amalgam of Different Characters

One of the biggest mysteries surrounding Dark Phoenix has been the character played by Jessica Chastain, who seems to play a vital role in the film's plot.

Speaking to Collider, Simon Kinberg touched on who Chastain is playing. He remained cryptic but offered a clue about what the character represents.

"I can tease that she is not of this world, that she is an extraterrestrial character. I can tease that she does some pretty wonderful things with it. Beyond that, in terms of where she comes from specifically in our universe and what she's based on in the comics, I guess I will say she's sort of an amalgam of a couple different characters and iterations of those characters over the span of the different tellings of the Dark Phoenix story that have taken place."

When Chastain was first cast, many fans assumed she was playing Lilandra, Majestrix of the Shi'ar Empire. The Phoenix Force is part of the Shi'ar's mythology and they played a major role in "The Dark Phoenix Saga." When that idea was refuted, fans wondered if she was a gender-swapped take on Mastermind, the evil mutant who corrupted Jean in the original comic book story. Kinberg has since debunked that idea as well.

"I will say that Jessica's character is not Mastermind but there are elements of the way Mastermind manipulates Jean that Jessica's character does employ," Kinberg explained. "For me, as you'll see, that Jessica's character has elements of a few different characters from the comics.

"She is from, let's say, not our planet, her character. I'll keep it relatively mysterious but it is a cosmic story in a way that is extraterrestrial, which is something we've never done in the X-Men movies before but is obviously something that is integral to the Dark Phoenix story so I felt we couldn't do what we did on X3 and ignore that. We had to actually embrace it. So there's a fair amount that takes place in space, and the inciting incident that starts to turn Jean, let's say, dark and fill her with this power that she can't control happens in space. And then there are forces from space that come to Earth because of that."

Who do you think Chastain's character is? Let us know in the comment!

Dark Phoenix opens June 7, 2019.

Other upcoming X-Men movies include the PG-13 re-release of Deadpool 2 on Dec. 21st, The New Mutants on August 2, 2019, and Gambit in March 2020.