X-Men: Dark Phoenix Reveals Jessica Chastain’s Villain Role

In the months leading up to the release of X-Men: Dark Phoenix, the role for Jessica Chastain has remained mysterious. It was clear she was playing a villain on some sort but the name and origin of this villain was never explicitly shared in any of the promotional materials or interviews ahead of the film’s opening weekend. Now, with X-Men: Dark Phoenix playing in theaters worldwide, Chastain’s villain role has been revealed as an obscure character from the pages of Marvel Comics.

Spoilers for X-Men: Dark Phoenix follow. Major spoilers!

In X-Men: Dark Phoenix, Chastain plays a Marvel Comics character by the name of Vuk. The alien’s objective is to rule the Earth and use the planet as a means to help the D’bari Empire once again have a home to thrive on after theirs apparently fell. Vuk first appeared in 1964’s Avengers #4 as a male alien character.

It seems possible that Chastain originally played a Skrull character given that the Dark Phoenix version of Vuk has a shapeshifting ability similar to that of Skrulls. A major part of Dark Phoenix was reshot to avoid having similarities to another super hero film which was released before it. Captain Marvel used the alien race from Marvel Comics in March of this year. Changing the name and home of Chastain’s Vuk was as easy as changing the words in subtitles on the bottom of the screen. Whether or not this is what happened remains to be acknowledged.

“Well, I was sent the script immediately, so it was pretty clear, she was otherworldly,” Chastain said when asked if words like Skrull or Shi’ar were ever used to describe her character. “Basically I’m there to encourage Jean to be her full self and that includes the darkness. I was like, I was saying something, I was like the little devil whispering in her ear, on her shoulder.”

In Marvel Comics, Vuk also goes by the name of Starhammer and does not possess a shapeshifting ability. Vuk lived for thousands of years and merely possessed the standard D’bari race strength.

Have you seen X-Men: Dark Phoenix? What did you think of the movie? Share your thoughts in the comments section or send them my way on Instagram or Twitter.

X-Men: Dark Phoenix is now playing in theaters.