A rumor about the villains of the next X-Men movie may be true, and it could have an interesting connection to the Captain Marvel film.

We’ve known for a while that the main villain of X-Men: Dark Phoenix will be played by Jessica Chastain, although it was never confirmed just who her character was. She’s being referred to as “Smith”, but the biggest clue to her true identity lies in the information that she’s a shape-shifting alien. Combine that fact with an earlier rumor that the Skrulls, a famous shape-shifting alien race from Marvel comics, would appear in the movie, and it seemed all but confirmed the famous villains would make their live-action debut in the movie.

A new rumor says that, following a test screening of the movie, the Skrulls do in fact appear in the movie. Further information form the report says that the new installment is stronger than the uninspired Apocalypse but not as good as the acclaimed Days of Future Past, and that tonally it was a more serious movie.

Now it’s also common knowledge that the Skrulls will be in Marvel Studios’ Captain Marvel film in 2019. This is possible because the Skrulls are rare characters that, like Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, Marvel and Fox both technically have the rights to use. Fox, however, has the rights to specific Skrulls, such as Super Skrull, while Marvel can use the alien race in general.

When Joss Whedon announced his plans to include Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver in Avengers: Age of Ultron, 20th Century Fox changed the planned appearance of Juggernaut in Days of Future Past and gave the role to Quicksilver instead, beating Marvel Studios to the punch. Is it too big a coincidence that iconic characters will once again show up in a Fox Marvel film just before they were publicly announced to appear in a Marvel Studios movie? Who’s to say, really.

–Weston Sheffield

Source: Manabyte

X-Men: Dark Phoenix releases November 2, 2018.

Jean Grey begins to develop incredible powers that corrupt and turn her into a Dark Phoenix. Now the X-Men will have to decide if the life of a team member is worth more than all the people living in the world.