Jean Grey (X-Men film series)
Character in the X-Men film series
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jean Grey is a character featured in the X-Men film series produced by 20th Century Fox. Based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name, she appears in seven films in the franchise, starting with X-Men (2000) and ending with Dark Phoenix (2019). Famke Janssen portrayed the character in X-Men, X2 (2003), X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), The Wolverine (2013), and X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), while Sophie Turner portrayed a younger version of the character in X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) and Dark Phoenix.
Tom DeSanto
| Jean Grey | |
|---|---|
| X-Men character | |
Famke Janssen as Jean Grey / Phoenix in X-Men: The Last Stand | |
First appearance | X-Men (2000) |
Last appearance | Dark Phoenix (2019) |
| Based on | |
| Adapted by | Bryan Singer Tom DeSanto |
| Portrayed by | Famke Janssen (2000–2014) Haley Ramm (child, 2006) Sophie Turner (2016–2019) Summer Fontana (child, 2019) |
| In-universe information | |
| Alias | Phoenix |
| Species | Mutant |
| Occupation | Scientist / physician (original timeline) |
| Affiliation | X-Men |
| Family | John Grey (father; deceased) Elaine Grey (mother; deceased) |
Significant others | Scott Summers Logan |
| Nationality | American |
Powers and abilities |
|
Following Marvel parent company Disney's acquisition of 21st Century Fox in 2019, the X-Men film rights reverted to Marvel Studios, effectively ending the X-Men film series. Sadie Sink was cast as a new iteration of Jean Grey for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, debuting in the film Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026), and will next appear in Avengers: Secret Wars (2027) and the untitled X-Men film (2028).
Fictional character biography
Early life
Jean Grey was born in 1967. Nonetheless, X-Men: The Last Stand and Dark Phoenix each have a flashback sequence for Jean; because of the events of X-Men: Days of Future Past, these two flashbacks take place in two different realities.[1] The following biography is separated by the two timelines and lives of her.
Original Earth-10005 variant
Joining the Xavier's school
In 1986, Jean is visited by Charles Xavier / Professor X (Patrick Stewart) and Erik Lehnsherr / Magneto (Ian McKellen) after her parents had been concerned about what they believed to be a type of "illness" in their daughter. The girl is shown levitating multiple cars and other objects with her telekinetic powers and the two elder mutants, still friends at the time, invite Jean to the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters. The professor later explains that while she was young, he put psychic dampers on her mind to help control a supposed "dark side" within her subconscious, preventing her powers from spiraling out of control and hurting others and herself.[P 1]
X-Men member
In the 2000's, Jean (Famke Janssen) serves as a member of the X-Men, who has a complicated relationship with Logan / Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), despite her love for her fiancé Scott Summers / Cyclops (James Marsden). Following the events at Liberty Island, Jean starts to become unstable with her powers. Along with the X-Men, she learns from Kurt Wagner / Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming) and Magneto, a conspiracy by William Stryker (Brian Cox) to put an end to mutantkind. The team, Magneto, and Raven Darkhölme / Mystique (Rebecca Romijn) eventually stops it, while Jean sacrifices herself to save them at Alkali Lake.
Return, death and legacy
In 2006, Scott assists to Jean's return, revealing she survived the incident prior. However, she is possessed by the Phoenix Force, who make her kill him. Learning that, Xavier and Lehnsherr goes to her childhood home to convince her to join their respective sides. Ultimately, the Phoenix kills Xavier and team-up with Erik to face a cure against mutants, before being killed by Logan at Alcatraz Island. Additionally, she makes minor appearances in The Wolverine, in which his guilt over killing her haunts the titular character. Unknown to her at the time, the world slowly turns into dystopian future ruled by Sentinels in 2023, which led to Logan rewritting the timeline using time-travel.
Revised Earth-10005 variant
Car crash
In 1975, Jean is in a car with her parents, causing a car crash with her out-of-control mental powers, killing her mother and leaving her father afraid of his own daughter and refusing to see her later on; Jean is led to believe that her father also died in the crash. She is approached by Charles Xavier (James McAvoy), who tries to help the troubled girl, inviting her to enroll in his school.[P 2]
Debut as a superheroine
In 1983, Jean (Sophie Turner) is a student in Xavier's school and befriends Scott Summers (Tye Sheridan) upon his arrival. After spending time with him, Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee) and Jubilee (Lana Condor), they discovers a destoyed mansion due to the emergence of En Sabah Nur, who kidnapped Xavier. Jean then assists to the capture of Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), Peter Maximoff, Hank McCoy / Beast, and Moira MacTaggert (Rose Byrne), at Alkali Lake under William Stryker (Josh Helman)'s facility. She saves the captured people, with the help of her friends and Stryker's experiment Weapon X, whom Jean restores parts of his memory. In Cairo, she defeats En Sabah Nur using her Phoenix-like powers and rebuilts the mansion with Magneto (Michael Fassbender), while joining the new iteration of X-Men, led by Mystique, Beast and Xavier.
Conflict with the Phoenix Force
In 1992, Jean's powers becomes highly developped after surviving a solar flare-like energy during a space mission. Xavier also explains that he erased the car crash from her memory to keep her safe, preventing her powers from spiraling out of control and hurting others and herself. However, fragments of her memory are deblocked, leading her to reconnect with her living father. However, he rejects Jean, saying his wife died in that crash because of her. The X-Men arrives to calm her, but they fight and Mystique is killed by Jean in the process. She flew to Genosha, seeking Mangeto's help but he also rejects her after Jean used her abilities in a violent way. She is found by Vuk (Jessica Chastain), leader of the D'Bari, who reveals that energy came from her planet and can help Jean using it. Jean's activities lead the mutants to come in conflict between them, before Xavier eventually apologies to Jean and bring her to normal. Jean then sacrifices herself by using the Phoenix Force's power to defeat the D'Bari, after discovering their true intentions.
Ambiguous fate
Sometime later, the Phoenix Force is seen soaring in the distant sky, foreshadowing her return. By 2023, this return is confirmed as Logan (with the consciousness of the previous timeline) is happy to see Jean alive, as well as Scott. In a deleted scene of Logan, however, a Alzheimer developed Xavier reveals that Jean died again either from similar events at Alcatraz or from the Westchester incident, where he inadvertently killed several people, including few of the X-Men, in a seizure-induced psychic attack, leaving him and Logan among the only survivors.
Background and creation
Development
The casting call for the first X-Men film specifies Jean Grey's character as a "Beautiful and intelligent scientist. Also an X-Man. She has telepathic and telekinetic powers. Engaged to Cyclops and yearned for by Wolverine. Late 20s".[2] Reports from pre-production in 1999 indicated that Jean being written to be a scientist - which she is not in the comics - was due to Beast, the team's resident scientist, originally being part of the script but dropped due to budget concerns.[3] Since director Bryan Singer had gone with a younger, teenage portrayal of Rogue (Anna Paquin), he felt that he wanted a more mature Jean in contrast.[4]
He also noted that Jean Grey would have committed suicide by the end, which was redundant with the ending of X2. The "Dark Phoenix" storyline was thus relegated to a secondary substory in The Last Stand. Simon Kinberg was disappointed by this outcome, calling the Dark Phoenix Saga "the ultimate X-Men story" and compared reducing it to a secondary subplot to sidelining the Book of Genesis chapter from the Bible.[5] At one point, Matthew Vaughn (the original director of The Last Stand before Brett Ratner took over) wanted Wolverine to carry Leech with him to Jean to depower her; Penn felt that this was a cop-out and Jean had to pay for her crimes, and depowering her would also not fix her broken state of mind.[6]
The 2019 Dark Phoenix film was originally meant to be a two-part storyline, one film named only Phoenix and then Dark Phoenix as its sequel. However, the producers were unhappy with the outcome of X-Men: Apocalypse and cancelled the second sequel, forcing Simon Kinberg to compress his storyline into one film. His original ending had Jean dying at the end, but this ending was poorly received with test audiences for the film and was changed to a more hopeful outcome.[7]
Casting
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In 1998, it was rumoured that Julianne Moore was in the talks for the X-Men film at the time, presumably for the role of Jean Grey.[8][9] Helen Hunt was offered the role, but turned it down,[10] as did Charlize Theron.[11] Peta Wilson auditioned for the role.[12] Ashley Judd, Alicia Witt, Selma Blair, Robin Wright-Penn, Minnie Driver, and Maria Bello were also all rumoured to have been auditioning for the role at the time.[13][14] Lucy Lawless was invited to audition, possibly for the role of Jean, but choose to abstain due to her real-life pregnancy and her otherwise busy schedule with Xena: Warrior Princess.[15] In early August 1999, it was reported by Daily Variety that Dutch model turned actress Famke Janssen had been cast as Jean Grey.[14]
For X-Men: Apocalypse (2016), Hailee Steinfeld, Elle Fanning, Chloë Grace Moretz,[16] and Saoirse Ronan[17] had been among those who auditioned for the role of the younger Jean. Grace Fulton, who would go to play Mary Bromfield in the DC Extended Universe Shazam films, also auditioned to play Jean.[18] Sophie Turner, after being cast as younger Jean, contacted Famke Janssen about advice on playing the role, but was told that there was nothing that Janssen could teach that her she did not already know, as well as being wished good luck with the role.[19] To prepare for the role, Turner studied how schizophrenia and dissociative identity disorder works in real life.[20]
Characterization and special effects
In X-Men: The Last Stand, Jean's appearance when the Phoenix takes control was created by John Bruno working with Moving Picture Company. MPC used particle systems to create the effect of Jean's hair seemingly moving when the Phoenix effect takes over. MPC made hundreds of skin and eye treatments and used a 3D model of Famke Janssen's face when compositing them into Jean's digital makeup. According to Nicolas Aithadi (MPC),
- The idea was that when the Dark Phoenix is taking over, Jean's skin darkens, veining appears on her face, and her eyes go black. We went through hundreds of iterations with different degrees of darkness, with more or fewer visible veins. At the end, we went for a 'less is more' look and made the effect more subtle - but still enough to give Jean a scary look.[21]
Reception
Joe Garza of SlashFilm ranked Jean Grey from the X-Men film series 1st in their "Most Powerful X-Men Characters" list.[22] Alexandra Moroca of CBR.com ranked Jean Grey 1st in their "10 Strongest X-Men In The Fox Movies" list.[23] The A.V. Club ranked Janssen's portrayal of Jean Grey 60th in their "100 best Marvel characters" list.[24]
Famke Janssen received praise from multiple critics for her portrayal of Jean Grey. Scoot Allan of CBR.com ranked Janssen's performance 4th in their "10 Best Performances In The X-Men Movies" list, writing, "Janssen brought the character's love for Scott Summers and her interest in Wolverine to the big screen. She also perfectly portrayed Jean's struggle with her powers that ultimately led to her loss of control in X-Men: The Last Stand. Janssen's portrayal of Jean Grey and her final moments impressed fans."[25] Christian Bone of Starburst ranked Janssen's performance 8th in their "10 Greatest Performances in the X-Men Movies" list, stating, "Though most famous to film fans at the time as the OTT Xenia Onatopp in GoldenEye, Famke Janssen proved to be the best choice to bring Jean Grey to life in the original X-Men trilogy. Her Jean is a gentle, caring woman who nonetheless has an apocalyptic power within her that she can't comprehend."[26] K.J. Stewart of WhatCulture ranked Janssen's performance 25th in their "50 Greatest Performances In Marvel Movies" list, saying, "Janssen has had to portray both the good Jean Grey and the malevolent Phoenix and each role has been performed comfortable. She has conveyed the wise and moral Jean just as well as the evil Phoenix entity."[27] The A.V. Club stated, "Janssen is the emotional anchor of those early X-Men movies, setting a high standard for psychological honesty as a method to cut through some overwhelming X-Men lore that requires a Cerebro to decode. Watching Janssen's big Moses moment during X2's climax, it's clear that she's a pioneer in these massive CGI set-pieces."[24]
Hugh Armitage and Simon Reynolds of Digital Spy called Sophie Turner's portrayal of Jean Grey "hugely likable" across X-Men: Apocalypse.[28] Robin Reynolds of MovieWeb ranked Turner's portrayal as Jean Grey in X-Men: Apocalypse and Dark Phoenix 2nd in their "Sophie Turner's 5 Best Performances" list, writing, "The best part about having Turner play this character is getting to see how Jean transforms over the course of the films. Her acting is top-notch, and she brings so much depth to the character's struggles that anyone can relate."[29]
Accolades
| Year | Award | Category | Nominated work | Nominee(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Blockbuster Entertainment Awards | Favorite Supporting Actress – Science Fiction | X-Men | Famke Janssen | Nominated | [30] |
| 2006 | Teen Choice Awards | Teen Choice Award for Choice Liplock (Shared with Hugh Jackman) | X-Men: The Last Stand | Nominated | [31] | |
| 2007 | Saturn Awards | Best Supporting Actress | Won | [32] | ||
| 2017 | Kids Choice Awards | Favorite Squad | X-Men: Apocalypse | James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Evan Peters, Tye Sheridan, Ben Hardy, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Sophie Turner, Alexandra Shipp, Olivia Munn | Nominated | [33] |
| 2019 | Teen Choice Awards | Choice Sci-Fi/Fantasy Movie Actress | Dark Phoenix | Sophie Turner | Nominated | [34] |
Merchandising
The Jean Grey from the first 2000 film was released as an action figure by Toy Biz in 2000. The figure has been criticized as "a static, unflattering, and oddly posed representation of Famke Janssen."[35] The 2007 "Dark Phoenix" version of Jean Grey from X-Men: The Last Stand has been released as an action figure in Marvel Legends series.[36]