The apocalypse has definitely been cancelled.

Following the disastrous reception of X:Men: Apocalypse (which I actually enjoyed for what it was, but whatevs), the X-Men franchise appears to be shifting gears in a dramatic way.

From my perspective, it’s all for the better.

The first trailer for Dark Phoenix, which continues the prequel narrative led by the Professor X / Magneto tandem of  James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender, focuses on the origins of Jean Grey, aka Phoenix (played again by Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner). For fans of the comics, the film will follow the general template of the 1980 comic book storyline The Dark Phoenix Saga by Chris Claremont, Dave Cockrum, and John Byrne (Google it if you want spoilers).

What’s refreshing about this approach, directed by longtime X-Men writer/producer Simon Kinberg, is that it’s a full-on character study, primarily of Jean Grey but also the entire X-semble.

It’s hard to glean what the actual “enemy” or “danger” is from this first trailer — whatever it is it’s secondary to the characters, like a quasi-MacGuffin — and that’s a good thing. A character study is much more intriguing than another run-of-the-mill, predictable “save the world/universe” action blockbuster.

Seeing the OG yellow-and-blue X costumes is pretty rad, too.

Co-starring Jennifer Lawrence, Evan Peters, Tye Sheridan, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Alexandra Shipp, and Jessica Chastain, Dark Phoenix opens on February 14, 2019.