Dark Phoenix, releasing on June 5, is the 12th film in the X-Men franchise and the seventh film in the main canon. It is also the fourth film in the prequel First Class series. Dark Phoenix is one of the last X-Men movies to come out from 20th Century Fox (The much-delayed New Mutants is really the last one), after its sale to Disney, who might reboot the whole franchise in the near future. Dark Phoenix is also the direct sequel to the 2016 film X-Men: Apocalypse. Dark Phoenix: 5 Major Problems Created for the Film by Continuity Issues in the X-Men Franchise!

The movie is directed by Simon Kinberg, who has also written the film. Kinberg, making his directorial debut here, had been creatively involved in the X-Men franchise, both as a writer and producer. With Dark Phoenix, Kinberg is adapting one of the most popular X-Men story arcs - Jean Grey's Dark Phoenix saga, which had been earlier used in X-Men: The Last Stand.

In India, X-Men is a very popular superhero franchise after the Marvel Cinematic Universe. On June 5, Dark Phoenix is clashing with Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif's Bharat. If you are planning to watch the movie over the weekend, here's all you need to know about Dark Phoenix.

The Plot

Here's the official synopsis of the plot of Dark Phoenix - "During a mission in space, Jean Grey absorbs a mysterious cosmic force that amplifies her powers to unimaginable levels, causing her to lose control and unleash the Dark Phoenix. Now the X-Men will have to decide if the life of a team member is worth more than all the people living in the world."

The Cast

Dark Phoenix brings back most of the lead cast in the First Class trilogy. The movie stars James McAvoy as Charles Xavier, Michael Fassbender as Magneto, Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique, Nicholas Hoult as Beast, Sophie Turner as Jean Grey/Phoenix, Tye Sheridan as Cyclops, Alexandra Shipp as Storm, Kodi Smit-McPhee as Nightcrawler, and Evan Peters as Quicksilver. Jessica Chastain is playing the main antagonist, who is a mysterious entity. Hugh Jackman, who played Wolverine in all X-Men movies till now, will not appear in this film.

The Trailer

Watch the trailer of Dark Phoenix below:

The Budget

Dark Phoenix is reportedly made on a budget of $200 million.

Movie Review

Here is Latestly's movie review of Dark Phoenix. Find out what our reviewer Chandni Shah has to say about the film.  X-Men: Dark Phoenix Movie Review: James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender Try Hard to Save this Sinking Ship

Box Office Prediction

Many American websites that track box office are predicting that Dark Phoenix will have one of the lowest box office opening for an X-Men movie in the continent. This is primarily due to the negative pre-release hype and the okayish promotional material, not to mention, the delay in getting the film released. In India, Dark Phoenix gets tough competition from Bharat that has got around 4000 screens in India (Dark Phoenix's screens are reportedly only 1/4th of that). There is also the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 that will make a dent into its box office prospects.

Sequel

Since the X-Men franchise has been folded into Disney and Marvel, there is most likely not going to be a sequel to Dark Phoenix. Fox executive Emma Watts described Dark Phoenix as "the perfect send-off" for Fox's X-Men franchise, which definitely means the film is the end of the X-Men saga as we have known it since 2000.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 04, 2019 12:08 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).