X-Men: Dark Phoenix – Everything you need to know

From Digital Spy

20th Century Fox's X-Men movie series has already had a try at the classic 'Dark Phoenix Saga' and the result was the infamous trash-fire X-Men: The Last Stand.

But thanks to some timey-wimey trickery, they're getting a second bite of that cherry. Here's everything you need to know about the X-Men: Apocalypse sequel about an angry flaming bird that blows up planets.

X-Men: Dark Phoenix trailer: Watch them here!

The first trailer arrived in September 2018, revealing what looks to be a very dark chapter in X-Men history.

Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) has been meddling in the mind of his student, Jean Grey (Sophie Turner), and those chickens are coming home to roost with the powerful young mutant tapping into the awesome power of the Phoenix.

Magneto is back to his old meddling ways, enabling Jean's destructive behaviour... which might lead to a funeral for one of our heroes.

And the second trailer confirmed our suspicion that the major death in the movie will be Jennifer Lawrence's Mystique.

Director Simon Kinberg explained that revealing Mystique's death in the trailer was aimed at showing that it's "unlike other X-Men movies".

"It's a movie where shocking things happen, where intense, dramatic things happen. People don't just fall off buildings and dust themselves off and walk away," he explained. "There's a reality to this movie and a consequence to this movie."

Related: Why has X-Men: Dark Phoenix spoiled its own surprises in advance?

The trailer release was also combined with a brand new poster, premiered on Sophie Turner's Instagram.

A third trailer was released on April 17 that showed more of the space incident that leads to Jean Grey going all dark.

It also contains more of Jessica Chastain's villain than previous trailers, seeming to act as a kind of evil mentor for Jean as she becomes the Dark Phoenix.

And if three trailers weren't enough, another one arrived on X-Men Day (May 13) that looked back at the entire X-Men Universe to date, with Dark Phoenix marking the "culmination" of the franchise.

"The story just felt like it was the culmination of all [these X-Men films], and it felt appropriate that we would kill off one of the main characters," said Kinberg.

X-Men: Dark Phoenix release date: It's delay time

Dark Phoenix – the fourth in the "next generation" series following First Class, Days of Future Past and Apocalypse – was originally tipped to arrive on November 2, 2018.

It was then pushed back in a major 20th Century Fox release date reshuffle to February 5, 2019 in the UK and February 14, 2019 in the US.

That delay allowed for a reported three months of extensive reshoots to rework the ending of the movie. Given that the trailer was released, we thought that was it, but it turned out that there was another delay on the horizon.

Now, the movie will hit cinemas on June 5 in the UK and June 7 in the US, with Kinberg saying that it was down to the fact that the visual effects weren't going to be ready in time.

Unfortunately the delays don't seem to have built up interest as the movie is currently tracking to post the lowest US debut of the franchise.

X-Men: Dark Phoenix cast: Who's coming back?

The core cast of James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Jennifer Lawrence are back, although we now know the latter won't be in it for long.

Nicholas Hoult (Beast), Alexandra Shipp (Storm), Tye Sheridan (Cyclops) and Kodi Smit-McPhee (Nightcrawler) are all returning, as well as Game of Thrones' Sophie Turner as Jean Grey, around whom the whole story will revolve.

The Originals' Summer Fontana will apparently play a younger version of Jean.

Jessica Chastain has been cast, too. She has shot down rumours that she is playing the alien Shi'ar empress, Lilandra Neramani, who has been billed as a villain in the film.

The latest reports bill her as an "otherworldly shapeshifter" called 'Smith', which sounds like a pseudonym if ever there was one. Whoever she is, she'll be getting an intense showdown with Turner if pictures from the set are anything to go by.

And Evan Peters was finally confirmed to be returning for another scene-stealing turn as Quicksilver, while The Next Step's Lamar Johnson is also on board in a mystery role.

Olivia Munn seemed set to come back as Psylocke, but she recently confirmed that she's not in the movie as it clashed with filming on The Predator.

To All the Boys I've Loved Before star Lana Condor won't be back either as Jubilee. "I hope X-Men lives on so hopefully in the future I'll be able to go back to that family because it's where I feel very indebted and loyal to," she noted.

Original Colossus actor Daniel Cudmore is also returning, but now that Stefan Kapičić is playing that character in the Deadpool movies, we're not sure who he'll portray.

A rumour has also been going around that Rogue is being recast for the film, and Dazzler is also expected to make an appearance.

X-Men: Dark Phoenix plot: What's it about?

The hints regarding Dark Phoenix began just before the release of X-Men: Apocalypse in 2016. Bryan Singer said he was down for it, hinting that something "dark" and "powerful" was growing in Jean Grey.

But what is The Dark Phoenix Saga anyway? In a nutshell:

When escaping from an exploding space station, Jean sacrificed herself by piloting the X-Men's ship back to Earth and exposing herself to dangerous levels of radiation. Before she died, a mysterious cosmic entity called the Phoenix offered her the power to save her friends and herself.

She accepted the Phoenix into herself (this was later changed so that a copy of her was made and she was put in stasis and hidden, but this doesn't matter for our purposes and is usually ignored by everyone). With her new powers, she helped the alien Shi'ar princess Lilandra topple her corrupt brother, the emperor D'Ken, and saved a magical space crystal.

But back on Earth, a group of powerful mutants called the Hellfire Club started secretly manipulating Jean's mind. They tapped into her dark side, but unfortunately weren't able to control what they found there.

The Dark Phoenix flew around space and blew up some inhabited planets. Jean was able to resume control, but only just in time for the Shi'ar to show up.

They weren't too pleased about the exploding planets bit, and fought the X-Men for the right to execute the Phoenix. Jean decided she was too much of a risk to her friends, and sacrificed herself.

The Last Stand steered clear of all that cosmic stuff. The Phoenix was instead revealed as a suppressed personality in Jean's mind that had a thing for evil Willow styling and murdering her loved ones.

Olivia Munn has called the movie a "two-parter", but we have no idea what she means by that and now she's not even in the movie, it's not clear if the plan is still the same.

The rumours around Dark Phoenix indicate that it might stick much closer to the original story.

Whatever the case, Evan Peters has promised a "darker" tone than Apocalypse, which would certainly fit with the bleak original.

The film will be set in the '90s, following the pattern of the recent films being set ten years apart (First Class in the '60s, Days of Future Past in the '70s and Apocalypse in the '80s). Though don't expect the film to explain why no one seems to be ageing at the appropriate rate between movies. Xavier and Magneto should be about 60 by now.

And, according to Alexandra Shipp, it does a better job with its female characters than any previous X-Men movie.

"It's really fun to be a part of a movie that is more explorative of their female characters. For a long time, especially with X-Men, we're just, like, the big tits in the back," she told Digital Spy.

"What's great about this is we've grown as a group, as a family and there's something we can really build on as individuals. Everyone's different, we're not just boobs and that's nice."

Could this movie mark the end of this X-Men cast with the franchise set to cross over to the MCU?

"So who knows what the plans will be for the X-Men? But if it were something that made sense for me to do and they wanted me to, then I'd be happy to play him again," said Hoult of his future in the franchise.

X-Men: Dark Phoenix is released in UK cinemas on June 5 and US cinemas on June 7.

Want up-to-the-minute entertainment news and features? Just hit 'Like' on our Digital Spy Facebook page and 'Follow' on our @digitalspy Instagram and Twitter account.

('You Might Also Like',)

• How the apartments from Friends, Big Bang Theory, Sherlock, Stranger Things and other shows are really laid out

• Big Book Awards 2019 shortlist reveals the hottest reads of the summer

• The future of Netflix - what's really on the cards?