The trailer for the mutant flick X-Men: Dark Phoenix premiered online late Thursday night and has already racked up over 2 million views on Youtube.
For those unfamiliar, Dark Phoenix sees everyone’s favorite face-off with their most lethal for yet: their very own Jean Grey (Sophie Turner). Earlier in April, we reported that X-Men: Dark Phoenix will be the last X-Men film under the 20th Century Fox banner before the company merges with Disney.
Under Disney, the X-Men films will now reside under the tutelage of Marvel, which has held the brass ring in terms of critically and commercially acclaimed superhero flicks. Under 20th Century Fox, the X-Men franchise has been a mixed bag as far as quality is concerned, with some of its films being hits and others being misses.
Chief among them is the film franchise’s handling of the character Storm, arguably the biggest black female superhero in comic books. The films have been criticized for giving fans a watered down version of the character we were treated to in the comic books. In addition, the X-Men films have been criticized for not having a darker skinned actress portray Ororo Munroe, given her character was much darker in the comics.
When the first look photos for Dark Phoenix appeared online, it drew ire from fans of the weather-controlling heroine since she was depicted holding an umbrella in the rain. In June, Shipp expressed doing a standalone Storm film. However, Shipp herself has drawn criticism for her tone-deaf comments surrounding issues of colorism, particularly when she made statements reducing the significance Storm’s skin tone than nothing but “a Crayola marker from 1975.”
Under the tutelage of Kevin Feige, the X-men films (and its characters) will be included in Phase 4 of the MCU. Whether this will signal the return of the original X-Men cast is unknown. One thing is for sure is fans on Twitter have already given their two-cents on how they want Marvel to go about its treatment of Storm: with tender, respect and a darker-skinned actress in the role.
X-Men: Dark Phoenix also stars Jessica Chastain, Jennifer Lawrence, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Tye Sheridan. Check out the first trailer for the film below.
