On 23 January, 2015, it was confirmed by director Bryan Singer that Sophie would appear in X-Men: Apocalypse (set in the 1980s) as a young Jean Grey. Many, including the actress herself, would believe that Sansa went a long way in establishing this casting.
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| Dark Phoenix poster |
The actress began Game of Thrones at an impressionable age of 13 years, when she was first cast as Sansa Stark in 2009. Ned and Catelyn Stark's eldest daughter, Sansa, was a spoilt, arrogant teenager, heady with her marriage prospects to Joffrey Baratheon aka Prince Joffrey — Robert Baratheon's successor to the Iron Throne.
It may have been possible to ignore Sansa's superficial ways for the initial few episodes in the series, to the extent that audiences daresay she lacked any substantial storyline. But it became impossible to overlook Sophie's onscreen presence ever since Sansa's father's beheading in season 1 episode 9. Through the showrunners' deft treatment, Sansa's character developed layers, continuously rising above the expected to show yet another surprising virtue.
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| Sophie Turner as sansa stark over the past eight seasons on Game of Thrones |
Throughout seasons 2 to 7, Sophie managed to portray the slow but steady growth of a character snatched from the innocence of a hedonic royal life to face betrayal, death, murder and even rape. Grimmer and shrewder by each episode, Sophie shouldered Sansa's grief and descent into darkness with elegance and maturity. While Sansa suffered, Sophie flourished with critical acclaim and rave reviews of her performance. After Sansa was raped on her wedding night in Season 5, Turner found herself at the center of a national outcry over the show’s use of sexual violence, as pointed out by her X-Men: Dark Phoenix co-star Jessica Chastain.
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| Sophie Turner's mass appeal as Game of Thrones' Sansa Stark is sure to bolster Dark Phoenix's audience reach |
The actress was consistently nominated (with the exception of 2012) at the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an ensemble in a drama series. She won the Huading and Glamour Awards for Best Actress as well.
In February 2015, Sophie confessed to IGN that her "Dark Sansa" avatar could well have been a prerequisite for her casting as Jean Grey. "I think maybe one of the reasons that they chose me for (Jean) is because they saw the dark side of Sansa," she said. "Maybe they're thinking, 'Oh, Phoenix, Jean Grey.' I definitely see a lot of parallels in there," chirped the then-19-year-old actress.
Through her own deductions, Sophie found parallels between Sansa and Jean. Jean had to always struggle with her superhuman, mutant abilities and was never truly accepted in the human world, much like Sansa's dreams of having a loving husband and a normal, royal life as opposed to an ultimate reality that systematically crushed her desires.
The Dark Phoenix saga chronicles Jean Grey's corruption and eventual redemption as Phoenix in X-Men's cinematic universe. Jean is seen struggling with her identity and telekinetic-cum-telepathic powers in the film. Sansa, though more self-assured than Jean, would tend to fit this bill quite well.
Hopping from one of the world’s biggest pop-culture franchises into another, would then, not be completely alien to Sophie.
Self-admittedly, leaving the shadow of Sansa was not easy for Turner. Once released, Dark Phoenix will show how able Sophie is of carrying a superhero film with such predecessors as Famke Janssen, Haley Ramm, Catherine Disher, Jennifer Hale and the like.
Often considered a "terrible actress" in season 1 of Game of Thrones, Sophie managed to move director Simon Kinberg to tears with her audition of the 2016 film X-Men: Apocalypse, in which Jean Grey was much more of a supporting character. This evolution was courtesy Game of Thrones, a fact which Turner openly admits. Peter Dinklage (who played Tyrion Lannister) and Lena Headey (Cersei Lannister) were the main inspirations in Sophie's journey of developing her acting prowess.
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| Sophie in Dark Phoenix |
Whether she is the most trolled Game of Thrones actress or not, her television debut made Turner an icon. Sansa's appeal via Game of Thrones is sure to bolster the already-popular Marvel franchise, especially with the probability that Dark Phoenix may be Marvel's goodbye to yet another beloved franchise (X-Men) after Avengers: Endgame.
Turner now says that she admires Sansa and her entire character arc in Game of Thrones, especially the fact that the "little bird" got to become the Queen of the independent North. Whether Dark Phoenix resonates the same way with audiences is yet to be determined, but Sansa's legacy is sure to loom large over Sophie's persona for quite some time now.
X-Men: Dark Phoenix is slated to hit theatres in Hindi, English, Tamil and Telugu in India this Eid on 5 June.
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