The upcoming third installment of the rebooted X-Men franchise arrives in theaters next year, but Game Of Thrones actress Sophie Turner is already talking about her role in the film, which will have her play a young version of the telepathic mutant Jean Grey.
According to Turner, her characters in the hit HBO fantasy series and the upcoming superhero story aren’t all that different.
“I think maybe one of the reasons that they chose me for [Jean Grey] is because they saw the dark side of Sansa,” said Turner of the similarities between the mutant telepath (played by Famke Janssen in the original X-Men trilogy and spinoffs) and her Game Of Thrones character, Sansa Stark, in an interview with IGN.
“Maybe they’re thinking, ‘Oh, Phoenix, Jean Grey.’ I definitely see a lot of parallels in there,” she explained. “[Jean] struggles with her power … and not being accepted in the human world. I think in terms of [Game of Thrones], that’s kind of the way Sansa felt in that she really wanted to be a normal princess/queen and live a normal life — and she doesn’t, because of all this havoc happens. I think Jean, in a way, feels that.”
Expected to be both the continuation of the rebooted X-Men franchise that began with 2011’s X-Men: First Class and the conclusion of a narrative trilogy, X-Men: Apocalypse will introduce young versions of many of the primary X-Men characters, including Jean Grey, Cyclops, and Storm, among others. This new cast will then kick off another set of films featuring young versions of these and other characters that appeared in 2000’s X-Men and its sequels.
Turner acknowledged that Janssen’s portrayal of the character over the course of the original trilogy, both Wolverine spinoffs, and the recent X-Men: Days Of Future Past looms large over her own take on the character.
“I think Famke played Jean incredibly well, but also, I’m playing a younger version of her,” she explained. “I want to emulate Famke in a sense, because she has to seem like the Jean in the first two movies, but I’m also going to put my own twist on her. I think I’m also going to take inspiration from the comics. I don’t know, we’ll see.”
Directed by Bryan Singer, X-Men: Apocalypse also stars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Rose Byrne, Oscar Isaac, Alexandra Shipp, and Tye Sheridan. The film hits theaters May 27, 2016.