The following contains minor spoilers for Dark Phoenix**.**
While Dark Phoenix may be mostly remembered for being the final entry in a long running franchise, the other reason it's a big movie is that it adds one of our best modern actors to the cast. Jessica Chastain makes her superhero movie debut in the film playing the film's apparent villain. However, while the identity of Chastain's character is quite mysterious, the actress has an interesting idea for her backstory.
At the beginning of Dark Phoenix Jessica Chastain's character is a normal human woman who, upon investigating what her dog is barking at, comes face to face with shapeshifting aliens. One of these aliens then takes the form of Chastain.
Our own Sean O'Connell spoke with Chastain recently and asked her if the actress had created any backstory for the human version of her character. It seems that Chastain herself and the character she was playing have a few things in common, leading the actress to consider that she was perhaps playing herself in Dark Phoenix. According to Chastain...
We were shooting that scene, I was meeting everybody and then the director, because I'm married to an Italian gentleman, very nice man, and he cast the guy who plays my husband in that scene as an Italian, he's an Italian. It was just funny. I mean, I look like Jessica. Maybe it's Jessica Chastain the actress.
We barely get to meet the fully human character played by Jessica Chastain. In my recollection, the character is named, and the name isn't Jessica, but who cares? Since the identity of the person isn't ultimately important to the story, it really can be anybody, and the idea that a shapeshifting space alien has taken the form of an Academy Award nominated actress is just funny.
The fact that the alien that now looks like an Oscar nominated actress then goes full Terminator destroying anything that gets in her way only improves the idea.
The fact that aliens play a part in Dark Phoenix seems to be a deliberate attempt to make this version of the popular Dark Phoenix Saga from Marvel Comics get over with fans better than what was done in X-Men: The Last Stand. While aliens haven't been important to the X-Men movies previously, they're key to the bonkers story that was created in the comics, though the new film certainly does still take some liberties.
You can check out Jessica Chastain's full comments to CinemaBlend in the clip below, along with co-star Sophie Turner's thoughts on what a Jessica Chastain hosted dinner party probably looks like.
Unfortunately, we'll never see the long term repercussions of Jessica Chastain being murdered by aliens as Dark Phoenix will be the last X-Men movie under the Fox banner. We expect to see the popular mutants completely rebooted at some point in the future into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Dark Phoenix opens in preview screenings this evening
