【The Hitman: Blood Smells Like Roses】

20th Century Fox is The Hitman: Blood Smells Like Rosesready to take on the Dark Phoenix. Again.

Plans for X-Men: Dark Phoenixare coming together, with a cast and director now firmly in place. That cast will include two-time Oscar nominee Jessica Chastain, who is in talks to play Shi'ar empress Lilandra, Mashablehas confirmed.

In the comics, Lilandra is more like an antagonist than an evil villain. When Jean's extreme powers wipe out another planet, Lilandra tries to stop her from causing further destruction. But that, of course, puts her up against the X-Men, who want to protect Jean.

Chastain joins returning stars Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Nicholas Hoult, Alexandra Shipp, James McAvoy, and Michael Fassbender. Also returning is Jennifer Lawrence, despite earlier hints that last year's Apocalypsecould be her final X-Menmovie.

X-Men: Dark Phoenixwill mark the directing debut of Simon Kinberg, who's been with the X-Menfranchise as a writer and producer since the lasttime they tried to adapt the Dark Phoenix storyline from the comics -- 2006's X-Men: The Last Stand.

The studio has X-Men: Dark Phoenixset for release on November 2, 2018. It'll be the third of three X-Menmovies out next year, after New Mutants(April 13) and Deadpool 2(June 1).

Deadlineoriginally broke the news Wednesday.

(Editor: {typename type="name"/})