With so many X-Men characters from the Fox film franchise returning in Deadpool & Wolverine, can we expect to see Famke Janssen’s Jean Grey among them? Janssen previously stated she would not be back for the forthcoming film, but now she’s singing a more uncertain tune. Here’s what she had to say when speaking to the folks at Comic Book about a potential comeback as the host of the Phoenix Force in Deadpool & Wolverine:
I don’t know. I doubt it, but you never know. I mean, I didn’t expect to come back after dying as Jean Grey. I came back as the Phoenix [in 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand], and I came back in flashback scenes in The Wolverine, and then in Days of Future Past.
It’s now been a decade since the actress portrayed Jean in Days of Future Past, which came out in 2014. Her role was recast with Sophie Turner for the pair of X-Men prequel films, X-Men: Apocalypse and Dark Phoenix. Nevertheless, fans have wanted to see the original Jean return ever since the altered timeline undid her death at the end of X-Men: The Last Stand. Why bring her and other dead X-Men back if not to use them in something down the line?
So far, the non-Hugh Jackman actors confirmed as coming back for Deadpool & Wolverine are all relatively minor players. We’re talking characters like Deathstrike, Pyro, Sabretooth, and Toad. But what about the main X-Men cast themselves? Patrick Stewart keeps hinting there’s more Professor Charles Xavier in his future. James Marsden has made similar hints about returning as Cyclops. Last year, Halle Berry showed off a photograph of herself in Storm’s signature white hairdo. If all of them return, then we imagine Jean Grey is coming back to the fold as well. We’re crossing our fingers for this Phoenix to rise from the ashes.
