X-Men Director Simon Kinberg Explains The Difference Between Dark Phoenix And The Last Stand

X-Men: Dark Phoenix might be taken out of the same Dark Phoenix comic book arc that X-Men: The Last Stand based its story on, however, the writer-director Simon Kinberg explains that this film is going to have a fundamental difference from its predecessor.

Screen Rant spoke with Kinberg during this year's New York Comic Con, and the publication asked the director what his approach was to rebooting the Dark Phoenix arc for his newest X-Men movie with Game of Thrones' Sophie Turner taking on the role of Jean Grey.

X-Men fans know that Kinberg also co-wrote The Last Stand with Brett Ratner in 2006, so many have been wondering how different Dark Phoenix would be seeing as the film was based on the same popular comic book saga.

According to the director, the main difference between The Last Stand and Dark Phoenix is that the upcoming film will put Jean Grey in the spotlight, her story with the Phoenix Force becoming the driving element in the movie.

"The biggest lesson learned from X-Men: The Last Stand or X3 was that if you are going to tell a Phoenix story, tell the Phoenix story. Don't make it the subplot of the movie. Make it the plot of the movie. So in this movie, Jean/Phoenix is the absolute center as you see her on the one-sheet of the poster. She's the center. The movie is about her. The movie's about her crisis and the ways that it then affects all of the people around her. Some of whom love her. Some of whom see her as an enemy. Some of whom want to take advantage of her. But she's at the center of it. So the lesson we really learned was to tell the Dark Phoenix story the way that it was originally told. And it's been told in other iterations, whether it be other versions of the comics or versions in the cartoons, she was always the center of it. It was always about her emotional, psychological breakdown and all of the things that they broke."

This is definitely good news for fans. The Dark Phoenix saga is a popular and iconic comic book arc, and many were disappointed that Jean Grey's struggle with the Phoenix Force had simply become a subplot in The Last Stand.

Hopefully, this new character study for Jean Grey will properly adapt the Dark Phoenix arc, showing Jean Grey's grit and struggle.

X-Men: Dark Phoenix is set to premiere on February 14, 2019.

Read: Dark Phoenix Director Says Thor: Ragnarok Inspired the Film, Apologizes for X-Men 3