[#CinemaCon] Dark Phoenix Gets a New Logo, Drops ‘X-Men’ from Title

The 20th Century FOX presentation at CinemaCon 2018 has come and gone, dropping some mutant bombshells and showing the audience the brand-new Dark Phoenix logo.

We’re waiting for an official art release, but you can see a grainy photo here.

Most notably, it looks like the X-Men: Apocalypse followup has dropped the “X-Men” from the title, which all the main story X-Men films at FOX have had since the first one released 18 years ago in 2000.

Also, to me personally, it looks more like a recycled The X-Files logo from back in 1998 when that first film came out (also from FOX).

Dark Phoenix is of course based on the classic X-Men comic storyline by Chris Claremont, and follows the aftermath of Jean Grey (played by Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner) being inhabited by the all-powerful celestial energy known as the Phoenix Force. (I’m REALLY hoping for some Hellfire Club and Jason Wyndgaard/Mastermind action, personally.)

The film is directed by long-time X-Men franchise collaborator Simon Kinberg, who normally produces these pictures, making Dark Phoenix his very first directorial credit. No telling if this will be a good thing, seeing as how he knows the characters (at least in their current cinematic form) better than pretty much anyone other than the actors.

Pushed back from an original release date in November of 2018, Dark Phoenix will hit theaters on Valentine’s Day next year, February 14th, 2019. This could be an interesting tell — we’ve already heard star Tye Sheridan (Ready Player One), who plays Cyclops in this film, say it will be much more of a love story between Scott and Jean than the previous mutant movies.

There was little-to-no talk of actual plot for Dark Phoenix or New Mutants, which are possibly some of the very last X-Men films we’ll see under FOX if this Disney purchase goes through.

And it appears that once again: Gambit has gone poof from any/all announced slates.

Dark Phoenix hits theaters on February 14th, 2019.