From the very beginning, The New Mutants director Josh Boone promised his film would be very different from anything we'd seen from the X-Men franchise. He said earlier this year...
“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.”
That wasn't just the typical studio-speak, either, not judging by the first trailer which looks like it belongs in The Conjuring universe, not the X-Men.
Starring Maisie Williams as Rahne Sinclair/Wolfsbane, Anya Taylor-Joy as Illyana Rasputin/Magik, Charlie Heaton as Sam Guthrie/Cannonball, Henry Zaga as Roberto DaCosta/Sunspot, Blu Hunt as Danielle Moonstar/Mirage, and Alice Braga as a creepy version of Dr. Cecilia Reyes, the film finds the young mutants trapped in a secret facility while grappling with their powers. Secret facility might be generous; it looks like something out of Gotham Asylum.
Reyes, who in the comics is a total pacifist, comes across like the twister keeper of this prison, explaining that baby rattlesnakes are actually more dangerous than adult ones because they don't know how to control their venom. Pretty straight forward metaphor for why these fledging heroes have been locked away.
Color me excited. It's not the team movie we were expecting, and I have no idea how or if it will fit with the X-Men franchise, but it looks cool and I appreciate the change in approach.
The New Mutants opens April 13th 2018.
