X-Men: Dark Phoenix Reshot The Ending To Avoid Similarities With Another Superhero Film

Dark Phoenix is seemingly wrapping up the current slate of X-Men films with its June 7 release. The apparent end for the pre-Disney X-movies could have come sooner, though: it was originally set for release in November 2018, but was delayed following reshoots. Star James McAvoy has now revealed one of the reasons for the reshoots.

In an interview with Yahoo Movies, McAvoy explained that the entire ending of the movie had to be reworked in order to avoid similarities to another superhero movie. "The end [of Dark Phoenix] changed a hell of a lot," he said. "The finale had to change. There was a lot of overlap and parallels with another superhero movie that came out… a while ago. And we had no idea that we were... we were basically trawling through the source material it seems."

Although McAvoy declined to state which rival comic book film had a similar ending, he gave some hints when he spoke about the location for the original ending.

"The story ended in space in a much more significant way," he revealed. "We actually shifted that to be back on Earth [for the reshoot], most notably, so that we can involve our main characters and see them come together. We wanted the family to be the thing that motivated Jean to finally embrace her identity, and finally, to allow love to be what allows her to transcend and evolve.

"But in the first iteration, they weren't present when she's going through a lot of the third act stuff. So we rejigged it so that we could dramatize the degree to which this divided family had come back together for her… that she could witness that, and, and bring [Jessica] Chastain into that sequence."

While there have been several superhero films released since Dark Phoenix started production in 2017, it's worth bearing in mind that Captain Marvel is the only one that had a significant part set in space.

Since Dark Phoenix was shot, Disney has bought all of Fox's entertainment assets, including the rights to the X-Men, as well as the Fantastic Four. While the studio has not announced its plans for these franchises, it has been confirmed that Marvel studios head Kevin Feige will be in charge of the properties and it is likely they will be incorporated into the Marvel Cinematic Universe at a later date.

Dark Phoenix also stars Sophie Turner, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Tye Sheridan, Olivia Munn, Alexandra Shipp, and Kodi Smit-McPhee. It's directed by Simon Kinberg and releases on June 5.