Written By: Nick Poulimenakos

Remember when X-Men: The Last Stand tried to adapt the famous Dark Phoenix Saga comic and ended up failing? Remember when the film had Jean Grey kill off not one, but two major X-Men characters during the course of the story and in inevitably led to the mediocrity of the film? If you said yes to both these questions, then be cautious as you read the latest rumor surrounding the X-Men films.

It has been known for a while now that the next main series film for the X-Men will be X-Men: Dark Phoenix, the second attempt at adapting the iconic story. The film will see a young Jean Grey succumbing to the full extent of her powers and apparently, according to That Hashtag Show, will feature the death of a major “First Class” era character. The identity of the character was not revealed but, as usual, lets speculate!

After three films, the only remaining First Class characters are James McAvoy’s Professor X, Michael Fassbender’s Magneto, Jennifer Lawrence’s Mystique and Nicholas Hoult’s Beast. Now, if we consider X-Men: Days of Future Past, and anticipate that this film will adhere to the new timeline, then we can rule out Xavier and Beast as being Jean Grey’s targets. When Wolverine woke up in the new timeline he created, he interacted with both characters, securing their fate for the future.

This leaves us with Mystique and Magneto. On one hand, Magneto opted to not join the newly formed X-Men, but is rumored to be leading a new kind of brotherhood of Mutants by the time Dark Phoenix rolls around, which would inevitably put him in the crosshairs of the unleased Jean. On the other hand, Mystique is now a full blown member and mentor to the young X-Men, which could lead to an impactful and memorable death at the hands of one of her students.

But, as I said, the rumor does not state who is going to bite the dust. It’s evidently clear that the X-Men franchise does not usually follow their own continuity so anything is possible. Until the release date, we’ll just have to speculate as to who will be the latest X-Men character to ride off into the sunset.

X-Men: Dark Phoenix blasts its way into theatres on November 2, 2018.