Fox's X-Men franchise has had its ups and downs, with most fans agreeing that 2006's X-Men: The Last Stand was a low. However, 2016's X-Men: Apocalypse is likely a close second, earning mixed reviews but a solid box office. Now even the producers concede it wasn't their finest moment.

RELATED: We May Know Who Dies in X-Men: Dark Phoenix (It's Not Who You Think)

Writer/producer Simon Kinberg, director of the upcoming X-Men: Dark Phoenix, acknowledges Apocalypse may have become too focused on the threat of the title villain.

“I think we took our eye off what has always been the bedrock of the franchise, which is these characters,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “It became about global destruction and visual effects over emotion and character.”

RELATED: Is Jessica Chastain Playing a Skrull in X-Men: Dark Phoenix?

Franchise producer Hutch Parker echoed Kinberg's sentiments about the Bryan Singer sequel. "There’s a lot that I think is very good in the film but, as a whole, it was struggling to find ways to coalesce, narratively emotionally and in terms of plot," he said. "Aesthetically, it felt sort of dated relative to an evolution you were seeing play out everywhere else. We learned a lot from that.”

X-Men: Dark Phoenix stars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan, Nicholas Hoult, Alexandra Shipp, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Evan Peters, Olivia Munn, and Jessica Chastain. The film opens Nov. 2, 2018,