‘Dark Phoenix’ to Introduce X-Men Villain Selene

With Wednesday night’s release of the debut trailer for Dark Phoenix, fans got their first look at the latest big screen X-Men adventure, and what will likely be the final movie with the current iteration of these character. What we didn’t know is that we also got a glimpse at a couple of new characters in Dark Phoenix, including the first look at the villainous Selene.

Thursday morning, IGN shared an exclusive new photo from Dark Phoenix that was highlighted by two mutants that hadn’t been previously revealed as part of the film’s roster. Little-known X-Men member Red Lotus is one such character, as is Selene, also known as the Black Queen, who was a part of the Hellfire Club in the comics.

You can take a look at the new photo, and the new characters, below!

Red Lotus can be seen in the back left of the image, and he’s being played by Andrew Stehlin. On the right side of the photo, with the purple buzzcut, stands Selene, played by Kota Eberhardt.

While the photo revealing the characters didn’t arrive until Thursday, they were actually featured in one quick shot in the trailer, it was just hard to notice because no one knew to look for them.

There’s a scene in the trailer where Charles Xavier is telling Erik to stand down, and they’re facing off in the middle of an old town. Beside Xavier stands Nightcrawler, Storm, and Cyclops. In one brief glimpse, we see that Erik has a team of his own, and this is where the new characters come in. Selene, Red Lotus, and Beast all join Erik in this face-off against Xavier, though it’s unclear what the disagreement itself is about.

What’s also unclear is the role that these characters will have in the movie. The ultimate villains of the film are Sophie Turner‘s Jean Grey, who becomes the devastating Dark Phoenix, and the mysterious alien played by Jessica Chastain. With those roles in mind, it’s hard to figure out where Selene will fit into the equation, other than to be an ally to Erik.

Red Lotus is a little bit easier to figure out, given that he’s a smaller character in the comics and it wouldn’t be surprising for him to just show up as an extra body in some key fight scenes.

Did you think we’d be seeing Selene in Dark Phoenix? What do you think of her new style? Let us know in the comments!

Dark Phoenix is set to arrive in theaters on February 14, 2019.