Logan might have bid the world farewell this year, but the rest of the X-Men are alive and kicking—in the past, anyway. Entertainment Weekly’s cover story is all about X-Men: Dark Phoenix, the latest entry in 21st Century Fox’s mutant franchise.
In addition to that, uh, burning cover, EW got an inside scoop on what the cast is calling the “most emotional” and “pathos-driven” X-Men movie ever. James McAvoy, who plays Charles Xavier, says “There’s a lot of sacrifice and a lot of suffering” ahead for the new class of gifted youngsters, including Sophie Turner’s Jean Grey. When we last saw her, Jean was just learning to tap into the unknown power that enabled her to destroy Apocalypse, but in Dark Phoenix, she’ll be “ malevolent [and] power-hungry.” And Turner, who reportedly studied multiple personality disorders and schizophrenia to prepare for the movie, says the big question is “What happens when the person you love the most falls into darkness?”
Jean isn’t the only person wrestling with her newfound power. Director Simon Kinberg teases a more “arrogant” Professor X. Eventually, his pride gets “the better of him, and he [pushes] the X-Men to more extreme missions.” That could be how they end up in outer space (for the first time in the film series), where they meet a shapeshifter played by Jessica Chastain.
X-Men: Dark Phoenix is due out November 2, 2018.