X-Men: Dark Phoenix - 8 Mistakes It Must Avoid
7. A Direct Adaptation
It sounds controversial but Dark Phoenix should, under no circumstances, attempt to adapt its comic book counterpart page for page.
The original 1980s storyline from Chris Claremont and John Byrne is now dated, and wouldn't necessarily fit in with the X-Men film universe post-First Class reboot.
Although Claremont's work is celebrated for its grasp of the team dynamic, Phoenix Saga's dialogue is bogged down by exposition, a recurring theme in '80s comics, and Byrne's artwork isn't as expressive or varied as his later X-contributions.
In any case, a direct adaptation is almost impossible given that some of the characters involved in the source material are either non-existent or dead in the movie continuity.
For instance, Colossus has a key role in the Saga, but he's off on Deadpool duties in the movie universe. Wolverine also starred in the story, while Magneto did not.
Moreover, the comics feature a gang of space pirates called the Starjammers, who would be tricky to cram into the X-Men movie universe from a tonal standpoint.
So this is where Simon Kinberg will have to get creative, swapping certain X-Men around, handing more substantial roles to others and making some tough creative choices about what needs to be cut.
But these are some aspects of the Dark Phoenix Saga which must not go up in flames during this process - the underlying themes of corruption, guilt, friendship, love and loss, just for starters.
The cosmic scope of the source material should also be retained as sending the X-Men up into the cosmos to interact with the alien Shi’ar Empire - a key part of the source material - is too big an opportunity to turn down.
As already highlighted, keeping the focus on Jean Grey is paramount, but so too is her relationship with her significant other...