X-Men: Apocalypse came and went in 2016, and the opinions on it were decidedly mixed. While not nearly as toxic to fan culture (or its studio’s gameplan) as that year’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Sucide Squad, it received a middling reception at the box office, by the critics, and even ultimately an indifferent fanbase that felt as though we had seen almost all of it before. And done better at that.

Yet even before the rumors of “X-Men: Supernova” first percolateed on the internet (prior to the film being announced as X-Men: Dark Phoenix), it was clear that the franchise’s salvation laid in the wake of Phoenix’s fiery glory. After all, the generally agreed upon best scene of X-Men: Apocalypse came when Sophie Turner’s Jean Grey was asked to unleash her full godlike mutant ability against Oscar Isaac’s Apocalypse, an ancient being who up until this point has made a big show about being perceived as an actual deity. To be sure, Isaac’s Apocalypse proved he is at least a master of taking massive amounts of punishment, withstanding Magneto’s heightened magnetic fields, Storm’s electrical charges, and whatever that stuff is coming out of Cyclops’ eyes.

However, it is only when Xavier calls upon his favorite student that the tide really turns against the Big A. McAvoy, always pitch perfect, evokes bottomless sympathy and concern as he pleads with Jean to let her Phoenix flag fly, and Turner happily takes this star moment to literally shine in a spotlight made of cosmic flames. With her transformation into Phoenix complete, Apocalypse melts away like a snowball that finally found its way to Hell, and the X-Men movies are at last allowed to marvel in the Phoenix iconography they first toyed with 2003—only to then see it squandered in complete failure by Brett Ratner with 2006’s historically dreadful X-Men: The Last Stand.

It is obviously meant to be the highest point of interest in an otherwise pedestrian climax, but it also shined a beacon on a path to something more interesting down the road. Now Jean is an omega level mutant, Magneto and Xavier are at peace for the first time since the third act of X-Men: First Class, and Mystique is leading the young mutants into a signoff of Danger Room fan-service.