Dark Phoenix: How Jennifer Lawrence's Mystique Has Evolved Visually

It's no secret that Jennifer Lawrence's Mystique has been a pivotal figure in the X-Men prequel movies. As the erstwhile disciple of Charles Xavier, the mutant shapeshifter has spent much of her time oscillating between the master telepath's team of righteous X-Men and Magneto's burgeoning Brotherhood of Mutants. If you've seen more than one of these films then you'll know that Mystique's look changes almost as frequently as her allegiances.

While it would be a simple matter to surmise that the prequel films continue to change Mystique's appearance to keep her in line with her comic book counterpart, that's not the case. Instead, the prequel films, much like the trilogy that preceded them, are largely marching to their own beat, picking the pieces of X-Men canon that suit them and tossing out the rest.

The film series looks to continue this trend with the upcoming Dark Phoenix, the first official trailer for which dropped mere days ago. The trailer doled out an ample amount of screen time for Lawrence's Mystique, revealing that the mutant has gone through yet another visual transformation.

So, how many times has Mystique's look changed -- barring all the times she actually transforms as part of her mutant powers? As it turns out, each movie introduces a slightly different look for the shapeshifter. While we've yet to get a skull belt-toting Mystique, the changes have been noticeable. Let's look at them now.

X-Men: First Class

X-Men: First Class was the first time fans got to see Jennifer Lawrence's Mystique in action. It's worth noting that the film's realization of the character was largely adapted from the original trilogy of films in which the shapeshifter was played by Rebecca Romijn. X-Men: First Class is a prequel designed to recount how Charles Xavier first got into the X-Manning business. As such, it was still beholden to the prior films.

Knowing this makes the film's Mystique make a whole lot more sense. The design of Lawrence's blue makeup is like that worn by Romijn, right down to the pattern of markings on her head and body. There are two major differences between how the actors portrayed the character, the first being hair. While the red hair of Romijn's Mystique was slicked back flat against her head, Lawrence's version had more volume. The second major difference is height, which isn't surprising given there's a three-inch difference between the actors.

Also, why does Google just know that information?

X-Men: Days of Future Past

If there are two word that can summarize Lawrence's appearance in X-Men: Days of Future Past, they are "electric blue." While Mystique has always been blue in the X-Men films, this time around Fox decided to ditch the dark blue makeup aesthetic and go with something that popped. This change also resulted in some alterations to the character's skin markings, which have traditionally been portrayed as slightly raised bumps.

In X-Men: Days of Future Past, Mystique's skin markings have become more akin to small, reflective discs. The best way to describe them is that they look like very big pieces of glittery confetti that have been applied to Lawrence's skin. The character's head markings have also been similarly altered. While it might sound like this is a major change, the effect isn't terribly noticeable in action. The black, reflective bits blend in very well with Mystique's new blue skin tone.

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X-Men: Apocalypse

There's one big change to Mystique in X-Men: Apocalypse. Can you guess it? We won't make you wait because it's eyebrows, baby! That's right, while the previous prequel films opted to either drop or obscure her eyebrows completely, Apocalypse makes a very firm stand, triumphantly declaring that, no, in fact, Jennifer Lawrence's Mystique should have eyebrows and they should be noticeably red.

In all honestly, though, Mystique is a shapeshifter who has the power to look however the heck she wants. Still, it looks like the deadly mutant also learned a thing or two about makeup in the years between Days of Future Past and Apocalypse. This time around she sports lips that are a shade lighter than her still-very-blue skin tone. This, in combination with some similarly-toned eyeshadow, finally give some much-needed definition to Mystique's face.

Meanwhile, her skin markings have been slightly toned down and aren't nearly as reflective as they were in Days of Future Past.

Dark Phoenix

The differences between the various Mystiques in the prequel X-Men films have all been minor up to this point. Blue skin tones, eyeshadow and miniscule changes to skin prosthetics are perhaps of interest to the ardent X-Men movie buff, but such nuances are often lost on the average viewer. The upcoming Dark Phoenix looks to be the biggest departure from the prequel films and the trilogy that preceded them.

Now, Mystique's skin actually looks like skin -- less like a coat of blue rubber was applied over the body of an Oscar-winning actor. This new layering technique and the color applied to it make Lawrence's yellow eyes pop even more. The same can be said for her hair. While previous X-Men films attempted to replicate actual red hair coloring, Dark Phoenix seemingly isn't concerned with this. Instead, Lawrence's Mystique has bright, enthusiastically red hair that has been cropped short. Gone is the slicked-back hair style that has defined the character since X-Men.

Also different are Mystique's skin markings. This time around they appear to be simple black prosthetics that would be at home on a series like Star Trek: Discovery. This makes the entire character's aesthetic gel satisfyingly, while also calling attention to the symbol on her forehead. With Dark Phoenix seemingly picking up at least some threads of the Genosha storyline, it's worth mentioning that this version of Mystique has seemingly fashioned the symbol for the would-be mutant utopia onto her head.

As for the rest of Mystique, that's unclear. The trailer only depicts Lawrence's character fully clothed (a new trend for the films), so there's no telling what her body markings look like. The decision to depict Mystique as a mutant nudist has always been a curious one, after all. Given that this will likely be the last mainline entry in the X-Men franchise produced by Fox (the Disney deal is slated to go through next year), maybe it's time for the studio to do the right thing and finally give Mystique her skull belt.

They may never get another chance.

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 opens June 7, 2019.