New X-Men Movie's Main Cast And Director Confirmed

X-Men: Dark Phoenix will be the next part of Fox's ongoing mutant superhero series, and the movie's main cast and director have now been announced. Many of the stars of the last three films will return, and it will be directed by series producer Simon Kinberg.

As reported by Deadline, Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Nicholas Hoult, Alexandra Shipp, Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan, and Kodi Smit-McPhee will all reprise their roles. After last year's X-Men: Apocalypse failed to match the success of previous entries, there had been rumors that the studio was looking to reboot the entire franchise. However, this no longer seems to be the case. The site also states that Jessica Chastain (Interstellar, The Martian) is in talks to play the villainous role of Lilandra Neramani.

X-Men: Dark Phoenix will be Kinberg's directorial debut. However, he has been associated with the franchise since 2006 as both a producer and writer. He now oversees the entire connected X-Men universe, which also includes movies such as Deadpool, Logan, and the upcoming New Mutants.

The film is set to hit theaters on November 2, 2018. It is based on the classic Dark Phoenix storyline from Marvel's comic books. Last year, Kinberg explained that although elements of the story had been used in previous films, he was still looking at ways to tackle it.

"I think everything that hasn't been told from First Class and Days of Future Past is up for grabs going forward," he said. "So, it would absolutely be a story that we could tell in a different way."

The character of Phoenix--aka Jean Grey--was played first by Famke Janssen, and most recently by Turner. Dark Phoenix was an extended storyline that ran in issues of The Uncanny X-Men throughout 1980. It focused on Jean Grey becoming corrupted by the Phoenix Force that provides her with her powers, and turning them against the X-Men.