With two film adaptations under its belt, it's safe to say that The Dark Phoneix Saga has had a rough go of it on the big screen. To start, the classic Marvel Comics story was used as inspiration for X-Men: The Last Stand, a film that effectively forced Fox to reboot their superhero continuity. More recently, the narrative was once again brought to live-action in the aptly-titled Dark Phoenix, the last movie to feature the current X-Men actors. So, with the rights to all mutant characters at Marvel Studios, it's likely the story will be adapted in the Marvel Cinematic Universe at some point in the future.
But instead of focusing on how Marvel Studios will tackle the Dark Phoenix story, let’s turn our attention to how best Kevin Feige and company can deliver the cinematic experience that the Phoenix Force deserves. While it may seem obvious to keep the Phoenix Force on Earth in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, don't forget that the entity first emerged from the cosmos before claiming Jean Grey as its host. Therefore, it is not a stretch to imagine that the Phoenix Force could (and should) first appear in the cosmic section of MCU canon, and if existing storylines bear any precedent, it should debut through the lens of the James Gunn-helmed Guardians of the Galaxy series.
While it may seem out of left field at first, the Phoenix Force and the Guardians of the Galaxy are connected through the character Giraud of Haven. First appearing in Guardians of the Galaxy #9 in 1991, Giraud is a mutant who hails from the planet of Haven. As a member of the Planet Haven, he was hell-bent in his fight against the nine ruling mutants of Haven who descended from Wolverine. Known simply as “The Nine,” Giraud, with the help of fellow Haven inhabitant Starhawk, overthrow the ruling mutant class after Starhawk leads Giraud to the Phoenix Force. The entity asks Giraud to be its host, and upon his acceptance, he becomes known as Phoenix XI.
Luckily for everyone at Disney, Giraud has a history with the Guardians of the Galaxy that includes being a member of off-shoot group Galactic Guardians, as well as being a reserve member for the Guardians themselves. This tenuous connection through decades-old source material could be the basis for the exact version of the Phoenix Force story the MCU needs.
On top of that, James Gunn's franchise is the perfect vessel to introduce Giraud because Vol. 1 & Vol. 2 both showcase well MCU villains of an impossibly-unimaginable power level, including Ego the Living Planet. The films also hold a lot of emotional resonance with fans and feature perhaps some of the Infinity Saga’s most tear-jerky moments. Gunn would have a unique opportunity with the character of Giraud to create what could potentially become one of the MCU’s most tragic villains/heroes using his ability to hit an audience's emotions.
Obviously in this version of the story the Nine couldn’t be Wolverine’s children, but they can still be the thing which forces Giraud to seek out a power such as the Phoenix Force. Having the entity be imprisoned in a volcano (as it is in canon in the “Guardians” run from which Giraud is birthed) also feels just campy enough to be a fun inclusion in a potential future MCU outing with the galaxy’s biggest A-holes. Regardless, even if Giraud is never included in the MCU, one thing is for certain: the classic comic book dynamic of the Phoenix Force corrupting a once-trusted friend would work wonderfully in the context of a script with a heart that beats as vibrantly as one of Gunn’s.