Dark Phoenix Trailer Analysis: Mayhem, Destruction & An X-Man's Final Fate

While New Mutants, one of the final two X-Men films to be produced by 20th Century Fox, has seemingly been shuffled off the studio's release schedule, Dark Phoenix is getting a fresh push in front of it's upcoming summer release date.

The first trailer gave fans a good look at the film last year, with plenty of story-telling potential hinted throughout the teaser. But now, a new preview has been released, and it's filled with even more explosive revelations about Jean Grey's fate -- and perhaps at least one major X-character's death.

The Death of a Major X-Man

The trailer opens with Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) sitting in the rain, sobbing. She asks an unseen figure why she would make her do "that," something which apparently involved the X-Men confronting Jean and things quickly getting out of hand. While other clips fill out more of the fight (like Quicksilver trying to use his super speed to), potentially the most impactful shots feature Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) approaching Jean and trying to talk her down. Jean blasts her away and out of the shot, before cutting to a look of dawning horror crossing Jean's face.

Other shots in this (and earlier) previews showcased the X-Men suffering at least one casualty and holding a funeral, which suggests Jean will accidentally kill one of her fellow X-Men in the scuffle. Previous speculation suggests that it'll be Mystique or Quicksilver who doesn't survive the battle, but this trailer seems to make it clear it's J-Law's hero who ends up dying.

Jean Has A New Mentor

Fox has remained mum about what character Jessica Chastain is playing in the film. Some speculation has suggested that she could be the alien Empress Liandra, who played a majr role in the original Dark Phoenix Saga from the comics or even Miss Sinister, a new version of one of the more iconic and dangerous X-villains, Mister Sinister. Another theory suggests the character may even be the cinematic introduction of Xavier's twisted evil sister, Cassandra Nova.

The trailer seems to hint closer to the latter suggestion, framing Chastain as a malicious influence on Jean Grey. Chastain lectures Jean on her potential and power, and how the world will try to destroy what they can't understand. At one point she even waves a hand, and the world around them falls apart. This wouldn't track with the abilities of Sinister or Lilandra from the earlier stories, but could easily be a psychic display from Nova while she's trying to corrupt Jean.

Get In, We're Going To Space!

The much maligned X-Men: The Last Stand, among other things, failed to do a good job of adapting the Phoenix storyline. This new take on the material seems to be closer to Chris Claremont and John Byrne's original story, using the comics canon version of the character's origin as an inspiration for the film. The trailer features the X-Men flying into space to confront a strange light over the planet.

The trailer showcases Jean remaining in the cockpit of the ship even as it flies into the crimson light, just as she did in the comics. Jean is bombarded by the red rays, and is seen screaming as the light rushes towards her and into her body, coalescing into a birdlike shape at the end. It's obvious this is how she ends up with the cosmic powers of the Phoenix, and sets her up to become the Dark Phoenix of the title.

NEXT PAGE: Dark Phoenix: School's Out, the Train Job and Closing Fox's X-Men Franchise

Jean Is Coming For The School

Later, Jean is once again in the X-Men's mansion, which has seen better days, and appears to have been completely razed later in the trailer. First, though, Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) is gazing up at Jean with fearful eyes, much in the same way that Patrick Stewart' Xavier, who was killed by the Dark Phoenix in X-Men: The Last Stand, looked at his charge in that film's similar scene.

KEEP READING: New Dark Phoenix Image Shows a Battered and Bruised Team

But things seem to go better for the Professor than Magneto (Michael Fassbender), who slowly has his helmet crushed around his head courtesy of Jean and her telekinetic powers. She tightens her grip on the iconic helm, and Magneto is shown in extreme pain as a single tear runs down her cheek.

The Train Job

It appears that members of both the X-Men and Magneto's new Brotherhood of Mutants will be captured and detained on a prison train, until the arrival of a fully-powered Phoenix leads to the various mutants breaking loose and fighting. Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee) takes a hard hit, while Beast goes head to head with someone who appears to be a member of the Brotherhood. Magneto gets a pretty great moment where he uses his powers to grab every rifle he can and open fire on what appears to be Jessica Chastain's mysterious character.

Outside of the train, Storm (Alexandra Shipp) lets loose with lightning filling the sky, while Phoenix goes a step further and flies over the train, lifting it up and off the tracks. Other shots in trailer seem to show the train ending up a smoldering pile of burning wreckage, indicating that even though a massive fight takes place on the traveling prison, there's likely a lot more story to come after this sequence.

The End of An X-Era

The story of the Dark Phoenix is one of the great tragedies of the superhero genre. Brief shots from the trailer hint that this is probably going to play out in much the same way as the original. Following the fiery train crash, it appears that Jean allows the Phoenix to fully kick in, the cracks in her body emitting a bright light as the Phoenix Force becomes more and more powerful, even as she loses more and more control.

We also see Jean lifting someone up with her powers, perhaps giving us a glimpse of the film's the climax, with Jean taking out her anger on Xavier in response to all of his past machinations and attempts to control her powers. This would probably be a good reason for Cyclops to be screaming at her, trying to reason with her or reach her emotionally. However it all plays out, the film seems to be setting up an explosive finale to this version of the X-Men franchise.

Written and directed by Simon Kinberg, Dark Phoenix stars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan, Alexandra Shipp, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Evan Peters and Jessica Chastain. The film is scheduled to be released on Jun. 7.