How X-Men Comics Writer Would Fix Apocalypse & Dark Phoenix

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X-Men comics writer Chris Claremont opens up about changes he would make to X-Men: Apocalypse and Dark Phoenix to fix the poorly received films. The sixth mainline installment in Fox's X-Men franchise acted as a sequel to 2014's X-Men: Days of Future Past, in which the worlds of the prequel and present day films were bridged together. The 2016 film would return the story to the past in 1983 as the ancient mutant En Sabah Nur, better known as Apocalypse, would accidentally be revived and enact plans to wipe out modern civilization.

Dark Phoenix would serve as a follow-up to X-Men: Apocalypse, with Sophie Turner's Jean Grey fully transforming into the titular being after it was first hinted at in the 2016 film. Hitting theaters in 2019, Dark Phoenix would serve as the seventh and final mainline installment in the X-Men franchise following the Disney-Fox merger as well as the worst-received entry. It would also become the second-lowest grossing installment behind the pandemic-era-released The New Mutants, only bringing in $252 million against a $200 million budget and losing the studio an estimated $133 million, effectively killing all sequel plans.

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While attending this year's New York Comic-Con (via AIPT Comics), Claremont opened up about his ideas for changing X-Men: Apocalypse and Dark Phoenix to fix the films. The writer stated he would start by going back to X-Men: Days of Future Past to introduce Jean and Scott's daughter Rachel Summers, who would be portrayed by Sophie Turner, and would subsequently keep Apocalypse set in the present day with Patrick Stewart continuing the role of Charles Xavier and James McAvoy instead appearing as Charles' mental image. Famke Janssen's Jean would have nightmares of the Phoenix after having seen Logan's mind from the future in Days of Future Past, though the Phoenix flames would instead possess Rachel, leading to Apocalypse setting his sights on possessing Rachel's body.

Rachel would unleash the power of the Phoenix to destroy Apocalypse, though without any proper control it would also consume a star off in the galaxy, killing millions of beings, as happened in Claremont's iconic comic story. Dark Phoenix would see Rachel traumatized and under Jean's training, though wouldn't have much time to recover as the alien Shi'ar race would arrive seeking revenge for those killed in X-Men: Apocalypse. This would all culminate in a drastic event known as the Winchester Incident, a mysterious tragedy alluded to in Logan in which Xavier's debilitating health resulted in the death of hundreds, including the X-Men.

Claremont's ideas for how to fix the final X-Men mainline installments would have put the franchise back on a comics-accurate path as well as a more linear one audiences could follow easier. Setting the films in the present day rather than the past would have allowed for fewer plot holes than those created by the final products, namely the drastic age differences between the actors in Dark Phoenix and those of the original X-Men set just a decade later. Claremont's path would also offer a better path of character development for Phoenix and a subversion of expectations for comic book fans by focusing on Rachel rather than Jean.

The only flaw some fans will see in Claremont's more linear plan for X-Men: Apocalypse and Dark Phoenix is the ripple effect it would cause for other films in the franchise. Though it appears as if Logan would still eventually come to be in the franchise, Ryan Reynolds' Deadpool films would not be able to get away with the confusing timeline jokes in the same vein as they were, given the film largely existed outside any crystal clear one. With the X-Men property now in the hands of Marvel Studios, only time will tell if or how the Disney-owned studio elects to tackle Claremont's iconic storyline or address Fox's timelines as a third Deadpool film set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is in the works with Reynolds returning.

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