Fox and Director Josh Boone have decided to tow the line of the horror genre with the latest addition to the X-men franchise; The New Mutants. Based on the recently released trailer, we see the mutants trapped in a facility with an evil supernatural presence lurking in the shadows. This is probably a first-of-its-kind social experiment whose success largely hinges on general audience reception as no other super hero movie has taken this line of approach before….Ps for those of you wondering Blade was Action/Thriller. The New Mutants film will bring the horrific on the 13th of April 2018.
This is quite a daring approach for even a studio as big as Fox. The general social media buzz already hints that fans of the X-Men Franchise are curious to see how they pull this off. With the Director of The Fault in Our Stars (Josh Boone) at the helm of affairs, it only makes it more interesting to see how the Director’s first superhero movie would turn out.
New Mutants is partially based off Bill Sienkiewicz comic arc on the New Mutants comic in the ’80s, where Magik, Wolfsbane, Sunspot, Mirage, and Cannonball trapped in a mutant facility as they are possibly subjected to inhumane experiments and trying to understand their mutant powers. This further gives us an idea of how The New Mutants film will bring the horrific to the X-Men Universe.
Although, New Mutants will exist in a segmented space, it would still be linked to the other X-Men films. Hence, leaving open the possibility for a shared cinematic universe when the need arises…because it will *wink*. The cast is comprised of names we already know like; Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch, Split) will play Magik (sister of Colossus) and Maisie Williams (Game of Thrones) will play mutant werewolf Wolfsbane. Charlie Heaton (Stranger Things) will play Sam “Cannonball” Guthrie in the film (via THR). Sam can project energy and fly. Blu Hunt (The Originals) will play the role of Danielle Moonstar who has telepathic abilities.
On the other hand, Alice Braga (Queen of the South) will play role of Dr. Cecilia Reyes. In Marvel’s X-Men comic books, she can create “psioplasmic bio-fields” that protects her body from harm. Dr. Reyes is also a mentor to the young mutants.
In an interview with IGN, New Mutants Director Josh Boone stated that he pitched the project as the first installment in a trilogy. Each installment will be taking on different horror sub-genres.
“We brought it to FOX as a trilogy of films, really all based on that long run by Sienkiewicz, and kind of incorporates some stuff from later issues in the ’80s. These are all going to be horror movies, and they’re all be their own distinct kind of horror movies. This is certainly the ‘rubber-reality’ supernatural horror movie. The next one will be a completely different kind of horror movie. Our take was just go examine the horror genre through comic book movies and make each one its own distinct sort of horror film. Drawing from the big events that we love in the comics.”
Nonetheless, The New Mutants definitely falls into the class of “Rubber Reality” genre (as seen in the trailers with ‘face and hands pushing through a wall’ trope). We would have to wait to find out what other genres would be explored for future films.
Ps. Rubber Reality Genre: Where the characters in the movie are not aware that the true nature of reality is different from their perceptions. (Source: imdb.com).
We’ll have to wait till 13th of April, 2018 to see how The New Mutants film will bring the horrific to the X-Men Universe. Let me know how you feel in the comment section below;
Official Synopsis of The New Mutants:
Magik, Wolfsbane and other teenage mutants try to come to grips with their superpowers while staying at a secret facility.
Official Trailer of The New Mutants:
