WATCH: First Trailer Released for ‘Dark Phoenix’

20th Century Fox has unveiled the first official trailer for Dark Phoenix, which serves as a follow-up to 2016’s X-Men: Apocalypse. The cast of Apocalypse returns, including Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique, James McAvoy as Professor X, Michael Fassbender as Magneto, Nicholas Holt as Beast, Tye Sheridan as Cyclops, Kodi Smit-McPhee as Nightcrawler, Alexandra Shipp as Storm, Evan Peters as Quicksilver, and Sophie Turner as the titular Jean Grey/Dark Phoenix.

Taking the reins away from Bryan Singer, Dark Phoenix is both directed and written by Simon Kinberg. In the past, Kinberg has served as writer on Apocalypse, Days of Future Past, and The Last Stand, as well as 2015’s lackluster Fantastic Four. Dark Phoenix will serve as Kinberg’s directorial debut.

Judging from the trailer, Dark Phoenix seems to hit a lot of the same story beats as 2006’s The Last Stand, though it may be taking the comic book source material a bit more seriously. Jessica Chastain stars as the film’s villain, seemingly playing the role Magneto played in The Last Stand, influencing Jean Grey in order to use the power of the Dark Phoenix for her own needs. So far there hasn’t been much information surrounding Chastain’s character other than her name, Smith.

Unlike The Last Stand, Dark Phoenix seems to focus solely on the plight of Jean Grey and its effect on her teammates, while The Last Stand focused heavily on the circumstances surrounding a mutant cure; a story element pulled from Joss Whedon’s run on the comic book series Astonishing X-Men. Although credited on IMDb as being based on The Dark Phoenix Saga written by Chris Claremont, like its predecessors, Dark Phoenix seems to exclude a lot of the comic book’s more fantastical elements involving outer space adventures and run-ins with the Shi’ar, an alien race introduced in the pages of X-Men in the 1970s.

With 20th Century Fox having recently merged with Disney and Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige having publicly stated they would oversee the X-Men films, it’s possible that Dark Phoenix may be one of the last installments in 20th Century Fox’s X-Men film franchise; a series which began in 2000 and has in a lot of ways pioneered the state of modern super hero films. With that being said, hopefully Dark Phoenix allows the franchise to go out with a bang, rather than a whimper.

Check out the full trailer for Dark Phoenix below and feel free to let us know what you think in the comments. Dark Phoenix releases in theaters February 14th, 2019.