Jessica Chastain in Talks to Join X-Men: Dark Phoenix Cast as Main Villain

Exciting news for the next installment of the X-Men franchise has surfaced as Fox formalizes plans for Dark Phoenix. Jessica Chastain is in negotiations to play the film’s main villain, an alien empress named Lilandra, THR reports.

Simon Kinberg has been confirmed as the film’s writer and director. While Dark Phoenix is to be Kinberg’s directorial debut, he is no stranger to the X-Men universe. He wrote X-Men: The Last Stand, along with serving as a writer and producer for X-Men: Days of Future Past and X-Men: Apocalypse.

Chastain would join Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy and Nicholas Hoult, all of whom are returning to the franchise even after their original three-picture deals expired.

Also returning is Sophie Turner as Jean Grey, aka the Phoenix that the title refers to. Dark Phoenix will revisit the same storyline as the The Last Stand; however, this time the team is apparently planning to stick closer to the 1980s comic than the 2006 movie did.

X-Men: Dark Phoenix is set to release on Nov. 2, 2018. Find out more about Fox’s forthcoming X-Men film slate here.