10 Movie Franchise Staples Nobody Actually Cares About

2. Jean Grey - X-Men

There's no denying that, until his recent demise, Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) was the much-loved MVP of Fox's X-Men franchise, and while the two iterations of Professor X (Patrick Stewart/James McAvoy) and Magneto (Ian McKellen/Michael Fassbender) aren't that far behind, the series has always had a bit of a baffling fondness for Jean Grey.

Jean may be an undeniable mainstay of the X-Men comics, but the initial X-Men movie trilogy badly bungled the character despite a solid effort from Famke Janssen, taking The Dark Phoenix Saga and turning it into the utter misfire that was X-Men: The Last Stand.

If repeating a previous mistake defines insanity, then it's tough to imagine why Fox has allowed The Last Stand co-writer Simon Kinberg to both write and direct what's effectively a remake of The Dark Phoenix Saga with the "final" film in this continuity.

Dark Phoenix's marketing is desperately trying to convince audiences that Sophie Turner's poorly-acted, depressingly uninteresting Jean Grey is worthy of the central villain role, yet the early expectation is that the character's about to be fully driven into the ground for the second time in a mere 13 years.

Is Jessica Chastain really not enough villain for one movie? Following the mediocre response to X-Men: Apocalypse, maybe it was time to lay off the grandiose adaptations of beloved comic book storylines?

Fans have felt disconnected from the soul of the X-Men movies for a while, and a smaller-scale finale to the series would've been so much more interesting than...this.

It sucks for fans of Jean from the comics, because with her being botched for the second time on-screen, it'll necessitate a lengthy wait before the mess is forgotten and the character can be cleanly incorporated into the MCU.