Alita Battle Angel was the Reason Dark Phoenix was Delayed A Second Time

X-Men: Dark Phoenix was originally set to come out November of last year, then was pushed to February and then June for one last time. As it turns out, one of the main reasons why the film was pushed back was because of James Cameron pushing for a February release for Alita: Battle Angel.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, it was Cameron who demanded that Phoenix be pushed back because he wanted Alita to come out during a less competitive season. The site reports:

"Insiders tell THR that the move was to placate James Cameron, Fox's most important filmmaker, and his concerns for his movie, Alita: Battle Angel. According to one source, Cameron felt Alita would lose horribly when facing a December opening weekend that included Aquaman and Bumblebee, with Mary Poppins Returns opening up two days earlier."

While there was not really anything to compete with Phoenix in its June release date, the long wait definitely didn't help when it came to promoting the film. THR also claims that the producers were begging Fox not to push the movie back, but Alita came out in February, so we know how all that went down.

By the looks of it, Dark Phoenix didn't already have a lot going for it even if it did come out in February. Sure the lack of competition would have helped, but nothing can compensate for the alternate ending and sloppy conclusion of the main X-Men timeline.

On the bright side, all the Fox characters are now back with Marvel, and all we really need to do now is wait. Hopefully, they'll give us some amazing films while we wait for the five years of no X-Men material.

For now, catch Dark Phoenix currently in theaters.

See Also: Marvel Studios Isn't In A Hurry To Reboot X-Men After The Dark Phoenix Flop