Over the course of Fox's film series, the X-Men have been feared by the public, pursued by the government, and even deployed on the battlefield. But in the 2018 sequel X-Men: Dark Phoenix, they'll find themselves in an entirely new position: lauded as national heroes.

RELATED: First Look At Sophie Turner As Dark Phoenix

That detail is revealed in Entertainment Weekly's new cover story, devoted to director Simon Kinberg's adaptation of the seminal Marvel Comics storyline "The Dark Phoenix Saga." It's the franchise veteran's second attempt to tell that tale, following his widely criticized screenplay for 2006's X-Men: The Last Stand, which relegated Jean Grey's struggle to a mere subplot.

This time, however, Sophie Turner's young Jean is front and center, as she and the X-Men must come to terms with her growing power, and the threat it poses to not only the world but the galaxy. But how do they get to that point?

EW reports that the film, set in 1992 -- about a decade after the events of 2016's X-Men: Apocalypse -- opens with the mutants now viewed as national heroes, with Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) even celebrated on the cover of Time magazine. However, the X-Men are put at risk by their mentor's growing ego.

RELATED: X-Men: Dark Phoenix Will Reportedly Kill Off a Major Character

“Pride is starting to get the better of him, and he is pushing the X-Men to more extreme missions,” Kinberg explains.

When the team is sent into space on a rescue mission, a solar flare strikes the X-Jet, and the energy ignites "a malevolent, power-hungry new force within Jean." Marvel Comics fans will of course recognize that as the Phoenix Force.

Arriving in theaters on Nov. 2, 2018, 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.