10 Things The X-Men Franchise Wishes It Could've Done Differently

2. Given The Franchise A Proper Ending

Despite Dark Phoenix being marketed as the climactic swan song for the X-Men franchise, the movie wasn't initially conceived or shot as such, and so the few allusions it makes to any sort of concrete ending were hastily added in late-stage reshoots.

But for the overwhelming majority, Dark Phoenix just feels like any regular X-Men movie, given that it vaguely sets up another sequel by hinting at Jean Grey's survival, and the fact that it doesn't link back to the 2023 happy ending from Days of Future Past.

With the film's budget ballooned to $200 million, there clearly wasn't any money available to shoot additional scenes to re-shape the plot and give the film an overall greater sense of finality, but in an ideal world, Fox would've learned about the Disney merger before principal photography began.

And on top of all this, Dark Phoenix isn't even the real end of the franchise, as the deeply troubled The New Mutants is still pencilled in to release next spring (more likely on Hulu or Disney+ than in cinemas).