While it certainly seems unlikely, Sophie Turner would love to return as Jean Grey in the X-Men universe following last year’s Dark Phoenix. Turner recently was interviewed by Variety and explained that she is very interested in reprising the role in the future, but that may not be in the cards with Disney now in control of the franchise.
“I don’t even know what the deal is, whether Disney wants to continue on the X-Men journey,” Turner said. “I would always be down to go back to that character and that cast and that experience… we had the best time on those movies. I would kill to go back.”
Disney completed its $71.3 billion merger with Fox last year. That means the X-Men rights are in the hands of Marvel Studios. Eventually, the characters will be rebooted within the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a result. Details are scarce at this time, but it seems highly likely that the franchise will be given a hard reboot, meaning the previous versions of the characters won’t make the jump.
Turner first appeared in 2016’s X-Men: Apocalypse as part of a new, younger version of the core cast. She then reprised the role in last year’s Dark Phoenix. The film adapted the much-beloved storyline from the pages of Marvel Comics. Unfortunately, it wasn’t received well by critics or audiences. The movie holds a very poor 23 percent critical approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and earned just $246 million at the box office. That set a new financial low for the long-running franchise, which was especially abysmal, given its reported $200 million budget.
Here is the official synopsis for Dark Phoenix.
“This is the story of one of the X-Men’s most beloved characters, Jean Grey, as she evolves into the iconic DARK PHOENIX. During a life-threatening rescue mission in space, Jean is hit by a cosmic force that transforms her into one of the most powerful mutants of all. Wrestling with this increasingly unstable power as well as her own personal demons, Jean spirals out of control, tearing the X-Men family apart and threatening to destroy the very fabric of our planet. The film is the most intense and emotional X-Men movie ever made. It is the culmination of 20 years of X-Men movies, as the family of mutants that we’ve come to know and love must face their most devastating enemy yet — one of their own.”
Sophie Turner says she would "kill" to go back to #XMen https://t.co/Gyo9aodSMh pic.twitter.com/ju3MfYQqDE
— Variety (@Variety) April 10, 2020
It’s expected that the X-Men reboot will be part of Phase 5 of the MCU, which will kick off in 2022. There is no word yet on who may direct the reboot, or when we will see it in theaters.
So what do you think? Would you like to see Sophie Turner return as Jean Grey in the future? Or is there a new actress you would prefer to see take on the role? Join in on the conversation over on Facebook or Twitter!
