Iman Vellani said she ‘refused’ to watch Dark Phoenix

Iman Vellani says she ‘refuses’ to watch Dark Phoenix.

While Vellani isn’t concerned by the box office, Stephen King has come to the movie’s defence amid the low result. “I don’t go to MCU movies, don’t care for them, but I find this barely masked gloating over the low box office for The Marvels very unpleasant. Why gloat over failure?” King tweeted.

“I don’t want to focus on something that’s not even in my control, because what’s the point?” Vellani told Yahoo! Entertainment. “That’s for Bob Iger.”

For Vellani, the fact she enjoys the film is enough. “[The box office] has nothing to do with me,” she added. “I’m happy with the finished product, and the people that I care about enjoyed the film. It’s genuinely a good time watching this movie, and that’s all we can ask for with these films. It has superheroes, it takes place in space, it’s not that deep and it’s about teamwork and sisterhood. It’s a fun movie, and I’m just so happy that I can share it with people.”

Dark Phoenix, opening June 7, comes as the X-Men are at a crossroads. Marvel Studios’ President Kevin Feige will assume control of the property going forward thanks to the Disney-Fox merger. Dark Phoenix is presumed to be the final movie with this cast, while the future of the Kinberg-produced Deadpool franchise is unclear. 

In a conversation with The Hollywood Reporter, Kinberg reflects on his long relationship with Feige, discusses retooling Dark Phoenix‘s third act and shares his thoughts on New Mutants, which will undergo reshoots ahead of its 2020 release.  

You’ve said you write your films from a personal place. What was going on in your life as you sat down to start Dark Phoenix?

Something that I definitely relate to in the movie is the notion of letting go of the façade of control. So much of this movie is about a character trying to hold on to control of herself. Characters around her trying to control her. I found myself, for so much of my life, trying to contain and control things….. I think the repression of things and the instinct to control yourself or others is so much of what’s unhealthy in ourselves. It was just feeling like I could just let loose a little bit.