Warning: this article contains spoilers about Jessica Chastainâs Dark Phoenix character and the movieâs climax. Read on only if youâre prepared for them.
When Jessica Chastain signed on to the X-Men movie Dark Phoenix, and was strongly implied to be an alien, most probably assumed sheâd be playing Lilandra. The alien Empress of the Shiâar was introduced to many of us via the â90s animated seriesâ take on the Phoenix saga, and it made sense that sheâd be significant in the movie too. But she isnât, and writer-director Simon Kinberg recently shot down any notion that Lilandra would appear in the movie at all. Still, the fact that her character hasnât even been named in any of the press releases so far has kept us guessing. Why the secrecy? Is it some massive surprise?
If youâre a casual X-fan, her onscreen name reveal will likely mean nothing. But itâs arguable that comics fans might figure out the plot once they know. Not to mention itâs (sort of) a gender-flip, which can often generate undue and unnecessary amounts of rage from the worst sorts of fans.
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Initially, Chastain plays a generic human. But her physical form soon becomes co-opted by a reptilian alien that wouldnât look out of place in the V miniseries or The X-Files movie. This alien, which is played by her for the rest of the runtime is named Vuk, of the DâBari. And sometimes, in comics, called Starhammer. Vuk is generally coded male, but can reproduce both sexually and asexually, so maybe nonbinary is a better term.
There are more DâBari onscreen in Dark Phoenix than usually appear in any comic. The entire race was wiped out when the Dark Phoenix made their sun go nova, after all. In the comics, Vuk hadnât yet gotten back to the planet when it was destroyed. His family were, but he had arrived on Earth many years ago. Here his unusual appearance and use of a âpetrifactorâ gun may have given rise to the legends of Medusa and the Gorgons. Unlike Medusaâs famous stare, however, a second shot of the petrifactor can bring a person back from statue-dom. Clearly, he was not as good-looking as Chastain. In fact, heâs closer in appearance to the MCUâs Groot, though he can wear a human disguise. And did so once to infiltrate the Avengers. Armored up as Starhammer, he looks more like Samus Aran from Metroid.
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Also, the petrifactor â and its reversibility â is way kinder than movie Vukâs habit of psychically twisting a knot in your foeâs stomach.
The Dark Phoenix saga is pretty much required to end with Jean Grey getting a noble death. Thus, the movie calls for a climactic showdown between her and Vuk. Thatâs not quite how it went down on the page. Jean ultimately used her mind powers to convince Vuk he had won and killed her. Vuk found a planet of DâBari survivors and came back a hero, until the effect wore off. On his second attempt at revenge, he was shown an alternate universe where his planet did not explode. So he went there instead.
The Fox movies have never before acknowledged the cosmic side of the X-Men universe. As such, it makes sense to keep the alien races to one. (Although somebody over there is way too in love with evil purple clouds.) And if they have to pick only one, it as well be the race that has the biggest grudge. Yes, of course it way oversimplifies the Phoenix saga. Maybe Kevin Feige will try for a third crack at this story in a decade or so.
