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

4. Not Screwed Up The Dark Phoenix Saga...Twice

If the definition of insanity is repeating the same mistake twice, then the X-Men franchise is about as mental as cinema gets.

The Last Stand infamously bungled the long-awaited adaptation of the fan favourite comic arc The Dark Phoenix Saga, with a rushed plot, numerous unsatisfying character deaths and a disappointingly scant role for Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) herself.

And so, after Days of Future Past wiped The Last Stand from the timeline, it was decided a second attempt would be made with the recent Dark Phoenix...as written and directed by Simon Kinberg, the very same man who wrote The Last Stand.

And despite Kinberg promising Dark Phoenix would sidestep The Last Stand's mistakes, it ended up repeating several of them, with its overabundance of subplots, underwhelming deaths and general squandering of a fantastic premise.

Obviously nobody goes into these movies with the intent of screwing things up, but given how much money Fox left on the table by not nailing this beloved comic arc on screen, they must surely regret not bringing in a different creative team to get it right.