Fox announced that they planned on expanding their ‘X-Men’ franchise by making a movie with, literally, New Mutants. The New Mutants were the first ever team to spin off from ‘The Uncanny X-Men’ comic book and featured teenage mutants who were just discovering their powers. The move was an attempt to get back to the humble beginnings of the X-Men, with a more multicultural slant, inspired by the super successful ‘All-New, All-Different’ team that was introduced in 1975.
About three months ago a movie adaptation was announced, with little news following that. But as an update, director Josh Boone (‘The Fault In Our Stars’) posted this image on Instagram, showing what looks to be a completed script:
Boone co-wrote the script with Knate Gwaltney and it looks pretty hefty! Obviously not everything will make the final cut and there may be several revisions before all is said and done.
‘The New Mutants’ comic book introduced some very popular characters, including Deadpool, Cable and Domino. Three of their members appeared in ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’, Sunspot/Roberto DaCosta played by Adan Canto, Warpath/James Proudstar played by Booboo Stewart and Blink/Clarice Ferguson played by Bingbing Fan.
Among the most popular members of the comic book team are Mirage/Danielle Moonstar, Cannonball/Sam Guthrie, Wolfsbane/Rahne Sinclair, Karma/X’ian Coy Manh, Magik/Illyana Rasputin, Magma/Amara Aquilla, Cypher/Doug Ramsey, Warlock, Boom Boom/Tabitha Smith, Rictor/Julio Richter and Shatterstar. Obviously the team has undergone several incarnations with different missions, so Boone and Gwaltney had plenty of options to draw from.
In their earlier adventures, their chief opponents were The White Queen/Emma Frost of the Hellfire Club, who created an evil parallel group called The Hellions, many of whom had powers that mirrored those of The New Mutants. Emma Frost was played by January Jones in ‘X-Men: First Class’, but in ‘Days of Future Past’ it was stated that she’d been killed off-camera between the two films. Could that be reversed? Possibly. But while they’re at it, hopefully they’ll recast.
There are several directions a ‘New Mutants’ movie could go in. Students sneaking out to have clandestine adventures. Young soldiers fighting for mutant freedom. Twentysomethings balancing their heroics with young adulthood. What do you hope to see in a ‘New Mutants’ movie? Comment below!
