A fan has created a petition for Fox and Disney to release the original version of X-Men: Dark Phoenix.
The petition was created on Change.org and will be sent to 20th Century Fox, X-Men: Dark Phoenix director Simon Kinberg, Walt Disney Motion Pictures, and X-Men producer Hutch Parker.
The petition created by Tony C.
Tony C. indicates one of the reasons for the petition is due to a number of media outlets blaming “other movies for X-Men: Dark Phoenix’s poor box office.” He adds, “But further investigation points to reshoots and bad critic reviews as the cause.”
Yesterday, a number of media outlets pointed the finger at #AlitaBattleAngel for #DarkPhoenix‘s poor box office. But further investigation points to reshoots and bad critic reviews as the cause. I’d like to start a petition for the original version of Dark Phoenix to be released. pic.twitter.com/BYN1Hp9ijK
— StarOfElyon (@StarOfElyon) June 11, 2019
The idea that other movies might have been to blame for X-Men: Dark Phoenix’s box office comes from a Deadline article written by Anthony D’Alessandro. Alessandro details that Alita: Battle Angel was given a February release date at the request of James Cameron and Fox Studios CEO Stacey Snider who wanted to move the anime adaptation out of the competitive Christmas corridor.
The Hollywood Reporter’s Borys Kit would report much of the same as D’Alessandro. Kit wrote, “According to one source, Cameron felt Alita would lose horribly when facing a December opening weekend that included Aquaman and Bumblebee, with Mary Poppins Returns opening up two days earlier.” Cameron asked for his film to be moved and Snider acquiesced. Kit notes that his source told him that “Emma, Hutch and Simon begged her not to do it.”
What might be even more interesting is that D’Alessandro reports that the Fox marketing team for X-Men: Dark Phoenix had no idea when the film was actually being released.
D’Alessandro writes:
“I understand in meetings, some marketing execs didn’t even realize the release date changes on Dark Phoenix, and weren’t cognizant of the fact that the film was opening up against another franchise this weekend (i.e. Secret Life of Pets 2).”
One of his sources told him, “They never brought it up in meetings that we were on the same date.” Another added, “Sophie Turner is a beautiful actress, and they never showed that in any of the marketing materials. Instead, they made her look like a zombie.”
With everything plaguing X-Men: Dark Phoenix and the apparent horrible marketing, the petition states, “we’ve been robbed of a greater movie and Dark Phoenix’s cast deserves better than this ****storm following the low opening.” The petition continues, “Fox needs to fix what they’ve done and let us see what could have been.”
Finally, the petition demands:
“I feel like we owe it to this lead character, the X-men IP, and the entire cast to demand the original version of the movie.”
The petition has only been signed by 3 people so far.
What do you make of this petition? Do you plan on signing it? Do you think Fox and Disney should release the original cut of X-Men: Dark Phoenix?