May's X-Men: Apocalypse concluded the main slate of X-Men movies for the foreseeable future, but there are several spinoffs expanding this cinematic future in the meantime. One of them will be New Mutants, focusing on a teenage group of mutant superheroes in training. Since May of 2015, director Josh Boone has been working on the project as both director and writer, but today it was reported that he's re-teaming with his The Fault in Our Stars writers to tackle the script.
Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber will pen New Mutants, according to THR. Boone has already written several drafts of the movie, so it sounds like he brought the duo aboard to either rework several aspects of the screenplay or just rewrite the whole thing. That said, Boone will still work closely with the writers. Neustadter and Weber already have plenty of experience in the young adult movie genre together, not just with 2014's The Fault in Our Stars, but with 2013's The Spectacular Now and 2015's Paper Towns. New Mutants will just add superpowers to the equation.
The New Mutants made their comic book debut in 1982, following these mutants not only learning how to control their abilities and learn how to be superheroes, but also dealing with the usual teenager problems. The X-Men movies have largely revolved around the adult characters, both heroes and villains, so this movie is the prime opportunity to target the young adult demographic, and as laid out earlier, Neustadter and Weber have written many of these kinds of stories. New Mutants is one of several upcoming projects that is expanding the X-Men cinematic universe past the main series, including Deadpool 2, Wolverine 3 and X-Force. (Gambit, on the other hand, has had a lot of trouble getting off the ground.)
No plot details concerning New Mutants have been revealed yet, but the movie's lineup of mutant heroes will consist of Danielle Moonstar, Wolfsbane, Sunspot, Cannonball and Magik. Professor X will also make an appearance, which make sense given that these teens hail from his School for Gifted Youngsters. The new THR article also mentioned an alien named Warlock will appear, which, if true, would be the first time that X-Men movie franchise has included any extraterrestrial elements (it's unclear whether En-Sabah Nur's technology at the beginning of X-Men: Apocalypse falls under that category). In the comics, Warlock is a New Mutants member whose body is made of a techno-organic material, but it remains to be seen whether he'll be on the team or involved in some other way.
New Mutants hasn't been assigned a release date yet, but we'll keep you updated on the movie's progress as more relevant information comes in.
