From the standpoint of the fans the matter on who should play Jean Grey is pretty divided since some are still of the mind that Sophie Turner should be given another chance while Neeraj Chand of MovieWeb and many others are pretty confident that she won’t be brought back since Disney, who now owns the X-Men, will want to start from scratch. The only problem there is that Disney, as one would expect, marches to their own beat and sometimes hits a few discordant notes when it comes to veering off from the main story. It’s true that the most recent X-Men movie, Dark Phoenix, didn’t do much to live up to the comic version of the story, but that’s been pretty standard when it comes to comics vs. the big screen. Very few comic book movies have ever followed their origin story step for step and to be fair, trying to do so would be nearly impossible since things have changed quite a bit from when the characters first appeared to this point. If Disney was going to take the purist approach they’d ditch every one of the X-Men save for Jean Grey, Cyclops, Iceman, Beast, Angel, and Professor X, and start from scratch. But then they’d be missing out on Wolverine, Colossus, Nightcrawler, and several others that have become expected whenever another X-Men movie is presented. But in terms of who they’re going to get to play each role it does feel as though Sophie should at least have another chance at becoming Jean Grey since she did a fairly good job this last time.
Something about Dark Phoenix just didn’t resonate with fans, that much is obvious, but it wasn’t all attributable to the actors since several of them did a great job, as character such as Jean Grey, Nightcrawler, and several others were just great. The suggestion of Jessica Chastain has been made for the part of Jean Grey, but somehow this doesn’t feel right, and really starting the cast off with individuals that appear somewhat younger might be a better idea if only because it means that they could last for at least a few movies before they needed to pass the torch. One has to remember that eventually there are mutants that are just as powerful if not more so, even though Phoenix tends to trump a lot of them for sheer power. Given that the X-Men are joining the MCU though, one can almost expect that power level to be reduced so that there’s no threat to the MCU’s most ‘powerful’ character, Captain Marvel. If that happens however it will be easy and understandable if fans give Kevin Feige hell for it, since pitting Dark Phoenix against Captain Marvel isn’t much of a contest. After all, Dark Phoenix is a being that can destroy solar systems without that much effort and has brought the likes of Galactus to his knees, but again, in the movies it’s bound to come up that the character will be toned down to a solid 8 while Captain Marvel might remain dialed up to 11. If there’s one thing that Disney has made abundantly clear, they’re going to back a champion of their choosing, but really if they’re going to be smart about it they’ll start making concessions for characters like Jean Grey.
Bringing back as many cast members from the past movies might actually be a good idea, though of course a few actors will need to be found for various characters if they’re going to be joining the party. There have been many suggestions for Wolverine but few for characters such as Colossus, Jubilee, Rogue, and various other faces that might want to be seen in another X-Men movie. Gambit would be one that a lot of people might want to see, while villains such as Sabertooth, Magneto, and perhaps even cosmic enemies might be a good idea to show if only because the X-Men haven’t been completely bound by earth-born enemies throughout their long run. It might even be nice to see Mr. Sinister, or the Brood, as the mutant team has gone toe to toe with a great number of enemies from different dimensions, different timelines, and of course from different worlds. There’s an enormous amount of potential for the X-Men considering how many mutants have shown up in the comics and the vast and interesting stories that many of them have to offer. Plus, the X-Men provide a great way to deal with inclusion in the movies since as mutants they’re constantly being looked at with suspicion and hatred, despite the fact that they help people and are largely beneficial to their world.
On a personal note, bringing back Sophie Turner just makes sense considering that she’s had the role for a couple of movies now and has done fairly well despite being bound by dialogue and story lines that were less than optimal.
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