Why is X and Pearl the Same? MaXXXine’s final chapter and the birth of an X star delivered in spades

Maxxxine says the end of the story. But, as with before, West is still kicking around some ideas for where the franchise could go from here. While he is not giving away anything yet, there is at least one difference this time: he could take a break. “I’d like to try to get the snowball rolling on whatever I’m hoping to be next,” he says, “and then take a little vacation before jumping into it.”

That’s how he ultimately landed on the franchise’s unique naming scheme. The original idea was to follow X with XX and culminate in XXX, but that changed once he started work on the later films. “Once I wrote Pearl, it was clear this movie should be called Pearl,” he explains, adding that “by some miracle, Maxine has an X in her name, so we could just add Xs. If she didn’t have an X in her name we wouldn’t have called it.

Tying to this idea of making each film distinct was the goal of also making each stand on its own. They complement each other, and the viewing experience is more enjoyable if you watch them all. West says that he wanted “to make a trilogy where you didn’t have to see the other movies. That alienates a huge portion of the audience who would never watch a movie like X, so they won’t see Maxxxine. I didn’t want people to think they couldn’t see Pearl because of the idea of X.

More than its setting or new time period, MaXXXine’s self-awareness about being the third installment in a franchise that audiences now have certain expectations about is what makes it feel most distinct from X and Pearl. If you have recently watched the X movies in chronological order, you will already know the big finale has a twist about how the public has responded to porn over the years. MaXXXine’s third and final chapter in a story about the world being Forced to reckon with the birth of a star delivered in spades.

After escaping with her life and setting off to become a mainstream movie star six years ago, she wound up in Los Angeles because of her unflappable work ethic and constant support from her crooked agent Teddy Knight. In a town full of newly minted blondes hungry for big breaks, neither Maxine’s thick accent nor her willingness to show skin is quite enough to make her stand out — especially for bigger-budget projects that aren’t just about people having sex. After meeting with her and watching her try out for the movie, Elizabeth is convinced that she has found the right person to play her in The Puritan II.

You can feel West channeling the sexiness of dramas like Flashdance and the grimy glamour of neo-noirs like Body Double as Maxine rushes from her gigs at a strip joint to rehearsals on set. In terms of locations, MaXXXine’s world is bigger and more intricate than either X or Pearl, and this makes Maxine herself feel almost like a different character, because of her steelier performance. West uses this newly added space to paint a picture of the city at its most sleazy, and he emphasizes how the US Ronald Reagan-era political conservatism had a major impact on the pop culture landscape.