Trivia: The third act was completely changed after reshoots. The final battle originally took place in space, and was then relocated to a train.
Trivia: The soldiers guarding the X-Men on the train are part of the "Mutant Containment Unit", and have "MCU" patches on their arms. Director Simon Kinberg has said while the name wasn't initially intended to connect to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, he of course recognised the significance of the acronym as soon as the wording was suggested and was happy to make the patches quite prominent as a deliberate nod to the X-Men returning to their parent company.
Trivia: Jessica Chastain has said she didn't even know what her character's name was until she saw the film.
Trivia: Early on in production, the film was actually meant to be an epic two-part story. Part one would be called "Phoenix," while part two would be called "Dark Phoenix." The studio eventually pulled the plug on the second film for unknown reasons, forcing writer/director Simon Kinberg to fold the scripts together into one single film. Many elements of the story fell by the wayside when this happened since they couldn't be fit into one single film.
Trivia: This movie was originally meant to be the start of a new trilogy of "X-Men" movies that would follow the continued exploits of the younger "First Class" X-Men cast during the 90's. Characters such as Charles Xavier, Storm, Cyclops and Jean Gray/Phoenix were expected to return. However, after the merger of Disney and 20th Century Fox, future films were shelved and this movie was slightly retooled to serve as an impromptu finale for the franchise.
Trivia: The directorial debut of Simon Kinberg. Kinberg was chosen due to his history with the series - he was a co-writer on "X-Men: The Last Stand," "X-Men: Days of Future Past" and "X-Men: Apocalypse" and worked as a producer on several other entries.
Trivia: "Dark Phoenix" is set to be the final main-series entry in Fox's "X-Men" film series. (The spin-off film "The New Mutants" will be the last official entry in the saga, though it will be a stand-alone story with little connection to the main series.) Disney acquired Fox's movie rights during post-production, and after this film's release, the X-Men are planned to be rebooted as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Trivia: The first "X-Men" movie to not feature Hugh Jackman in any capacity. (Although he did not shoot any footage for the two "Deadpool" films, he appears in both films through either images, references or stock-footage).
Answer: Your guess is correct. Lawrence stated she was done with the franchise after "X-Men: Apocalypse." She jokingly told Simon Kinberg she would return for this film if he directed it, and to her surprise, he was serious about it and held her to it. Fans weren't very keen on her appearances either, because she was definitely phoning it in for the third film, so that may have factored into killing her off early as well.
Phaneron ★
More than one actress had played Mystique. Just because Jennifer Lawrence did not want to continue playing that role is not a reason the character would be killed off. They could easily recast another notable actress in the part. I would not be surprised if Mystique is miraculously "resurrected" in a future X-Men film with a new actress.
raywest ★
Aside from Deadpool, any new X-Men film would be a complete overhaul of the franchise since the characters will be part of the MCU now. You're not wrong about an actor wanting out to not really be a reason to kill off a character, but it doesn't preclude them from doing so either. They might have decided it wouldn't be worth the hassle of recasting the role with all the negative baggage that would come with it.
Phaneron ★
Here are some candidates I think could do it: Amanda Seyfried, Shailene Woodley, Chloe Grace Moretz. Heck maybe even Milla Jovovich-Anderson should be given an audition, what say you guys?
Rob245