With the New Mutants, 20th Century Fox is continuing to expand the X-Men movie universe and rumors persist that casting has begun.
With Deadpool officially becoming the highest grossing X-Men film to date and excitement running high for the forthcoming X-Men: Apocalypse, it isn’t shocking the Fox wants to further expand the X-Men Cinematic Universe (or XCU). With the prequel X-Men trilogy wrapping up, Deadpool 2 already in development and a third Wolverine film in the planing stages, the future is wide open for whatever direction Fox wants to take their money making mutants.
An X-Force film is being considered and the troubled Gambit movie is still planned, it just seems no one knows when it may be released. And now word is that Fox’s adaption of the New Mutants has already begun casting.
In the comics, the New Mutants was a teenage group of mutants who were still learning to control and use their powers. The comic was one part soap opera, one part superhero adventure and if done right, could be a perfect companion series to the X-Men films.
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The movie, which is being co-written and directed by Josh Boone (The Fault in Our Stars) has been in some form of development or another for years, but with the success of Deadpool, much like X-Force it is being looked at as a way to expand the footprint of the XCU and compete with Marvel.
While speaking to IGN, Simon Kinberg, ruler of all things mutant for Fox, said that the film is currently being worked on and that it’s going to surprise a lot of people.
"“Josh Boone and his writing partner are working on the script. They’re doing a really nice job of it, and it’s a really cool one, because in many ways, like Deadpool was so different from the mainline X-Men movies, New Mutants… It’s maybe not as different as Deadpool, but it has its own unique, original voice to it.That’s the fun for me, working in the X-Men universe, creating these sort of standalone movies that have a different vibe to them. And New Mutants has more of a YA [Young Adult] vibe to it.”"
And if rumors are to be believed, casting has already begun.
As reported by Hitflix, Maisie Williams of Game of Thrones fame has been cast Rahne Sinclair, the shape shifting werewolf called Wolfsbane while Anya Taylor-Joy, last seen in The Witch, will be playing the demon sorceress Illyna Rasputin, aka Magik.
In addition, early word is that and Alexandra Shipp, who is playing Storm in X-Men: Apocalypse will make the jump to the New Mutants and James McAvoy will have a large role in the film.
Now, it’s important to note this is all just rumors at this point. In fact, Fox has already come out and denied that the New Mutants casting rumors are true.
Of course, that doesn’t mean there isn’t some truth in there somewhere. Studios are notorious for denying a report one minute only to confirm it the next, so while the pair of actresses may not be cast just yet, it is a good possibility that they are being strongly considered for the roles.
New Mutants doesn’t have a release date yet, but you can be sure one will be announced sooner rather than later.