It was meant to serve as the grand finale to the near-twenty year franchise, but things didn’t go according to plan for 20th Century Fox’s X-Men: Dark Phoenix, with the film failing to catch fire with fans and critics and scoring not only the worst reviews of the series, but also the lowest box office opening weekend.

Dark Phoenix – Fox’s second crack at adapting the iconic The Dark Phoenix Saga storyline – grossed just $33 million domestically in its opening weekend, and is reportedly looking at a loss in excess of $100 million once it finishes up its theatrical run.

Speaking to THR, long-time X-Men writer-producer and Dark Phoenix director Simon Kinberg has shared his thoughts on the film’s failure, stating that:

“”It clearly is a movie that didn’t connect with audiences that didn’t see it, it didn’t connect enough with audiences that did see it. So that’s on me. I loved making the movie, and I loved the people I made the movie with. I love these characters. I love these world. I’ll be super excited to see what Marvel does with them.”

SEE ALSO: Simon Kinberg shares details on X-Men: Dark Phoenix’s original ending and reshoots

SEE ALSO: X-Men producer disowns Dark Phoenix, The New Mutants, and Apocalypse

What are your thoughts on X-Men: Dark Phoenix? Did it deserve to crash and burn, or have the reviews been overly critical of the film? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below or tweet us @FlickeringMyth…

This is the story of one of the X-Men’s most beloved characters, Jean Grey, as she evolves into the iconic DARK PHOENIX. During a life-threatening rescue mission in space, Jean is hit by a cosmic force that transforms her into one of the most powerful mutants of all. Wrestling with this increasingly unstable power as well as her own personal demons, Jean spirals out of control, tearing the X-Men family apart and threatening to destroy the very fabric of our planet. The film is the most intense and emotional X-Men movie ever made. It is the culmination of 20 years of X-Men movies, as the family of mutants that we’ve come to know and love must face their most devastating enemy yet — one of their own.

X-Men: Dark Phoenix sees Simon Kinberg directing a cast that includes franchise veterans Michael Fassbender (Magneto), James McAvoy (Professor X), Jennifer Lawrence (Mystique), Nicholas Hoult (Beast), Alexandra Shipp (Storm), Sophie Turner (Jean Grey), Tye Sheridan (Cyclops), Kodi Smit-McPhee (Nightcrawler) and Evan Peters (Quicksilver) alongside new additions Kota Eberhardt (The Persian Connection) as Selene, Andrew Stehlin (Hacksaw Ridge) as Red Lotus, and Jessica Chastain (Molly’s Game) and Lamar Johnson (Kings).