Famke Janssen’s Star Trek Role Was A TNG Tragedy

When Famke Janssen reunited with Sir Patrick Stewart in the «X-Men» franchise, it was under circumstances that were less romantic but just as tragic. In the first film, Jean Grey is a mutant teacher at Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, chafing at the concept of government-decreed Mutant Registration. This gets infinitely more complex in later films with the first live-action attempt at adapting the notoriously divisive Dark Phoenix Saga.

Veering away from the cosmic origins of the Phoenix in the comics, the movies spin a more grounded tale. In the films, Xavier (Stewart) discovers that Jean’s telekinesis is so destructive that he feels he has to put safeguards in her mind to stop it from getting out of control. But after her supposed death in «X2,» the walls he put into place come tumbling down. She becomes an unstoppable force known as the Phoenix and goes so far as to kill Cyclops (James Marsden) and Xavier. Once again, Janssen plays a character who has no control over her ultimate fate, and Stewart’s character is in no position to help her.

Both Kamala and Jean are tragic figures, but Kamala makes out a little better because, at least, she’s still alive. Jean’s only way out is through death via Wolverine’s (Hugh Jackman) claws, because not even she can control herself anymore. Though Janssen could not have known when she first got the role in «The Next Generation,» Kamala was a strange and tragic precursor of what was to come down the line for her other, more famous role.