Though it helped to father what we would eventually call the Golden Age of Comic Book Movies, the X-Men franchise is in need of a serious kick in the pants. The series has stalled after the lukewarm reception toX-Men: Apocalypse, and it hasn't been entirely clear what's next for our ragtag mutants. New Mutants, the spin-off hoping to expand the X-Men universe, might be the answer. It's been confirmed by the director Josh Boone that New Mutants will be the next X-Men movie hitting theaters (aside from Logan).
This news comes after a mysterious film labeled as the seventh entry in the X-Men franchise was scheduled to begin production in Montreal offices in spring of 2017 (via Den of Geek). It wasn't clear exactly what was going to start filming, but the safe money was on New Mutants due to it being further in development than the next main X-Men film supposedly set in the 90's. That hunch turned out to be correct, and it was confirmed by New Mutants director Josh Boone himself with the tongue in cheek tweet you see above.
Fox definitely needs to rethink the direction the main X-Men film series is going in, so it only makes sense that New Mutants buys them some much needed time. With contracts for major characters played by Jennifer Lawrence, James McAvoy, and Michael Fassbender up and possibly exploring renegotiations, so much still remains unclear for the X-Men's future.
With New Mutants set to begin production this upcoming spring, that means that casting announcements shouldn't be too far off. Game of Thrones' Maisie Williams and The Witch's Anya-Taylor Joy were previously rumored to be front runners as Rahne "Wolfsbane" Sinclair and Magik respectively. Nothing's been confirmed, but both actors have expressed interest in the roles. Also, Nat Wolff of The Fault in Our Stars is rumored to be playing Sam "Cannonball" Guthrie. We'll surely see how accurate these rumors are soon enough.
Based on the comic book of the same name, New Mutants will feature an all new team of gifted youngsters in the wake of the original X-Men getting older. Not much is known about the plot of the film, but Josh Boone -- a fan of the early 80's comic book -- has claimed that the team will be extremely close to the original lineup of Magik, Wolfsbane, Cannonball, Sunspot, Danielle Moonstar, and Warlock. It was also recently rumored that fan favorite the Demon Bear will be an antagonist in the film, after an animatic of New Mutants was leaked online.
The release date for New Mutants is unknown, so make sure to stick with CinemaBlend and we'll keep you updated as more information begins pouring in.
