After almost a year of uncertainty, it was reported in May that Magneto (Michael Fassbender) would be back for 2018's X-Men: Dark Phoenix. That was confirmed later, as was the return of most of the German-born Irish actor’s X-Men: Apocalypse costars. Most recently, we've come across a new report that divulges possible details about Magneto.
According to Nerdist, the Master of Magnetism’s new X-Men: Dark Phoenix costume is “meant to suggest the imagery commonly associated with cult leaders”. This could mean that after helping Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) defeat Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac) in the last moments of the previous mainstream X-Men movie, Fassbender's character is now feeling particularly messianic. In addition, he may have attracted a number of followers.
The outlet added that this may also hint at the arrival of the Acolytes, a band of mutant supervillains who follow Magneto's principles and even worship him as the "mutant messiah". It must be noted that the Acolytes made their Marvel Comics debut in the early 1990s, around the same time period when the X-Men: Dark Phoenix events take place.
The outlet's source claimed that the November 2, 2018 release will introduce Chris Claremont’s fictional country Genosha, which appeared in Uncanny X-Men #235 in October 1988. While the East African country was originally a place where mutants were stripped of their basic rights, Magneto seized control in the 1990s and declared it to be a mutants-only nation. The Sentinels later reduced the country to rubble.
It remains to be seen how much of Genosha’s story will feature in Dark Phoenix, but director Simon Kinberg is aware of what may have been amiss with Brett Ratner's 2006 flick X-Men: The Last Stand. Before he landed the directorial job, Kinberg stated that having The Dark Phoenix Saga as a subplot in The Last Stand was a "big mistake". We hope Kinberg will avoid such mistakes in his directorial debut!
