How would you go about adapting Dark Phoenix Saga for the movies? Because the story has a number of problems chief among them that the ending (Jean killing herself) was not what Claremont/Byrne wanted and was put forth by Jim Shooter? And the story was retconned back and forth, and the fact that the Phoenix story is not really connected to the X-Men mutant metaphor. XMen 3 for all its flaws hit upon that problem and came up with a bad solution? But those problems still exist.

Good question!

I’m on record as really liking the Phoenix Saga. As for the critiques of it: honestly, I think that was a rare stopped-clock moment where Jim Shooter was right about the necessary consequences of Jean’s death; while I like Kurt Busiek a lot, I think the way that Jean being a clone was handled was very awkward and I would have gone with her just literally being reborn following the mythology of the phoenix, but I still think it led to some good material (the Wyngarde/Madelyne fake Phoenix stuff); and finally, I don’t think the lack of an mutant metaphor is a problem but rather a strength, that the X-Men aren’t limited to the allegorical.

As to the movies…well, I think my critique can be reverse-engineered: for Phoenix to land, you need to devote a substantial amount of time to Jean Grey and Scott Summers before the Saga starts, so that the audience is invested enough in the characters and their relationship to land. Likewise, for that to work, you have to make the ensemble nature of the X-Men work, so that Scott and Jean don’t get overshadowed by Professor X, Magneto, Wolverine, etc. And that requires a good writer and director, and I don’t know that we have those.

What are your thoughts on Fox’s decisions regarding X-Men: Dark Phoenix? Cast, direction, characters and etc.

I think they’re going to screw it up like they did before.

First, they haven’t given nearly enough screen-time to Scott and Jean for the story to land – the Phoenix Saga worked in the comics because it was the culmination of character arcs going back 17 years (it was also given 4 years to play out in the comics too), whereas in the movies this Scott and Jean have only had a few scenes together in X-Men: Apocalypse. Are audiences going to care enough about these two characters for the overall plot to land?

Second, the casting news suggests underlying weaknesses in the Singer X-Men movies are causing problems with story structure. The Phoenix Saga is about Scott and Jean, but the return of Fassbender, McAvoy, and Lawrence suggests they’ll be the central trio as they were in Apocalypse, Days of Future Past, and First Class, overshadowing every other element of what should be an ensemble cast. Also, Lilandra being described as the villain makes me worried that important people don’t get that the Dark Phoenix is the villain of the Phoenix Saga.

Third, I’m a bit worried about the director. Kinberg is primarily a writer and producer – having written or co-written Last Stand, Days of Future Past, and Apocalypse – and while he may well want to get the Phoenix Saga right this time, I worry that as a first time director he’ll hew pretty close to the Bryan Singer model (which as a writer and producer he was instrumental in creating and sustaining) that has shown itself to be increasingly creaky as time has passed since the first X-Men movie came out in 2000.