While the public at large has still not seen director Josh Boone’s The New Mutants just yet, the cast of the film has already had their taste of the action. It was truly an event for some, especially actor Blu Hunt, who started to freak out once she saw her character Danielle Moonstar on screen for the first time. Thankfully, she had co-star and Game of Thrones vet Maisie Williams to calm her down.
Blu Hunt’s story about that particular happening was detailed as follows:
It was overwhelming. I never thought I’d see myself in a movie, and the first shot is of my face! I was shaking in the theatre, but Maisie [Williams] grabbed me, like, ‘You’re good! It’s good!’
As Blu Hunt is starring in her first major motion picture with The New Mutants, that would be enough of a reason to freak out. Even more to the point is the fact that Danielle Moonstar, also known as “Mirage” to Marvel Comics fans, is a well-established character in the comic canon that gave The New Mutants its cinematic inspiration.
But as she further described in an interview with Empire, her excitement was coming from a very personal place:
I’m an indigenous superhero. I’m not just in the background, to please people. I’m carrying the movie.
Breaking that sort of ground, both on an individual and a pop culture level, is something that feels absolutely spectacular. Also, as a member of the Lakota nation of Native Americans, Blu Hunt’s big reaction during her New Mutants screening is understandable. Rather than just be relegated to the sidelines in the name of token diversity, Mirage is a vital character in this film’s lineup, with her importance reaching as far as being the first character we’re introduced to in this new world.
Fittingly enough, Maisie Williams’ character, Rahne Sinclair/Wolfsbane, is also breaking ground, thanks to the fact that she and Danielle Moonstar are in one of Marvel’s first same-sex couples in cinematic history. This already puts the actors on a level of comfort with one another that if one of them was having a moment in public, a reaction like Williams' would sort of be second nature.
While The New Mutants will eventually be released into the wild, it certainly won’t be an R-rated movie, nor will it be full of new material from those reshoots that never actually happened. What it will have, however, is the hopes and dreams of a set of young actors who just might carry the mutant brand on their shoulders in the years to come.
The New Mutants is currently waiting for a new release date, as the April 3rd slot it was once set to occupy has been pulled. As soon as we have any new details pertaining to the film’s distribution plans, we’ll break those updates as they come into play.
