In late 2015, 20th Century Fox tapped filmmaker Josh Boone to helm an adaptation of ‘The New Mutants’. Throughout the following year, the director behind ’The Fault in Our Stars’ worked with co-writer Knate Gwaltney and the team of Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber to punch up the script. Now in 2017, we’re closer than ever to getting the X-Men spinoff as the production has entered the casting phase with ‘Game of Thrones’ star Maisie Williams and Anya Taylor-Joy of ‘The Witch’ and ‘Split’ being the first stars added to the project. But as Fox assembles the teammates of Wolfsbane and Magik, we’ve got new details about what kind of story we’ll be seeing in spring 2018.
During a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Boone discussed the tone that he’s going for with the live-action version of Chris Claremont’s teen mutant team. The director shared that they have drawn a good amount of inspiration from Claremont’s run with Bill Sienkiewicz from 1984, which he describes as “Stephen King meets John Hughes”. Although, it seems like it will lean more towards the Master of Macabre than the leader of the Brat Pack:
“We are making a full-fledged horror movie set within the X-Men universe. There are no costumes. There are no supervillains. We’re trying to do something very, very different.”
Without a big bad to take down, then what sort of threats will this team of superheroes in training face? While this isn’t an official synopsis, EW’s sources close to the film say that these heroes must contend with keeping themselves and others safe from their new powers:
“Held in a secret facility against their will, five new mutants have to battle the dangers of their powers, as well as the sins of their past. They aren’t out to save the world — they’re just trying to save themselves.”
A horror movie where the heroes save the world from themselves? This is most certainly an intriguing idea and definitely something that sets this movie apart from the rest of Fox’s X-Men universe. But as with any great idea, it all depends on the execution. As we wait for more details on the upcoming Marvel mutant movie, let us know what you think about ‘New Mutants’ so far in the comments below.
Despite being a “professional writer”, Ben likes run-on sentences far too much. For more of his attempts at being funny and the occasional insightful thought, follow him on Twitter and Instagram.
