Jennifer Lawrence surprised fans by announcing her return as Mystique in “X-Men: Dark Phoenix.” When “X-Men: Apocalypse” came out it was the last film for many of the stars under contract since “X-Men: First Class.” To their credit, almost all of them have for the upcoming “Dark Phoenix” currently in production. Most surprising was Lawrence as the shape-shifting mutant.
Lawrence’s contract, as well as other principal cast members from the prequel films like James McAvoy who plays the younger Professor X, Michael Fassbender as the young Magneto and Nicholas Hoult as young Beast were all up. There were many speculations that the four are looking to bow out from their roles to give way to a new cast of characters spearheaded by Sophie Turner as the young Jean Grey.
Speaking with Digital Spy, Lawrence explained by she decided to return:
“My contract was up, I didn’t have to do another one, but if I didn’t do another one, what would her story be? I felt like I owed it to the fans, and I owed it to the character to follow her journey, to be fair to the movies, and not be like, ‘I don’t want to do another X-Men!’ And then I just never show up and everyone’s very confused about the Mystique they’ve been following for the last three films.”
As great a talent as Lawrence is, however, it’s not hard to sympathize with fans suffering from Mystique fatigue. After all, Mystique is not a particularly central character in the original X-Men comics. Mystique’s arc has, unfortunately, gotten a little muddied thanks to the franchise’s shifting timelines. Hopefully X-Men: Dark Phoenix will have development for the character that lets her do something other than continuously shift allegiances back and forth between Professor Xavier and Magneto.
Here are some reactions to Lawrence returning as Mystique to the X-Men franchise.
Jennifer Lawrence made the worst Mystique ever, totally killed my favorite character.
— ᛈᛘ390 (@HaveHeartYvette) August 25, 2017
There are people that think Jennifer Lawrence’s Mystique is better than the legendary Rebecca Romijn’s Mystique? In this economy? pic.twitter.com/AkIcTajr03
— Chukwudim (@mynameisnojuan) August 18, 2017
X-Men 7: Jennifer Lawrence’s Mystique transforms from someone who doesn’t want to be in shitty XMen movies to someone who likes making money
— Movie Ideas (@MovieIdeas1) September 7, 2017
Literally no one wanted Jennifer Lawrence to play Mystique. No one.
— Morgan Colón (@morganhoneyb) September 7, 2017
Absolutely hilarious Jennifer Lawrence is coming back to play Mystique after she did that whole tour about not wanting to play her again.
— P$p$r (@TheMSeries1) September 7, 2017
Lawrence will be seen on screens next week with Darren Aronofsky’s insane sounding “mother!” hitting screens next Friday which has already received great reviews from critics.
The new X-Men film will adapt the Dark Phoenix Saga comic book storyline where Jean Grey struggled to control and succumbed to the Phoenix Force within. X-Men: Dark Phoenix will also star Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan, and Jessica Chastain. X-Men: Dark Phoenix is currently scheduled to be released in theaters on November 2nd, 2018.
What do you think of Lawrence returning to the X-Men franchise? Do you like her role as Mystique or has she dominated the franchise too much? Let us know in the comments section.