Ever sinceX-Men: Apocalypseclosed out theX-Menprequel trilogy, fans have been left somewhat in the dark about 20th Century Fox’s future plans for the franchise. The studio is developingThe New Mutantsalong withX-ForceandGambitspin-offs, while rumors persist thatBryan Singeris shooting anotherX-Menmovie next year, which may or may not be a reboot of theDark Phoenixsaga, which was told inX2: X-Men UnitedandX-Men: The Last Stand. ProducerSimon Kinberghas also said that the nextX-Menmovie is set in the 1990s, but he hasn’t said which movie that may be. While we wait to sort out the future of this franchise,The New MutantsdirectorJosh Boonehas confirmed that his film will start a trilogy.
We reported in November that writer-directorJosh Boonehas the script ready to go, and that he plans to shoot the film in the spring of 2017.Creative Screenwritingcaught up with the filmmaker, where he revealed how he and co-writerKnate Gwaltneydiscovered the comics as kids. The filmmaker also teased that there is a release date in place forThe New Mutants, although it hasn’t been announced yet. Here’s what he had to say below, confirming how the project came together, that it’s now a trilogy and even teasing who the villain may be.
“Co-writerKnate Gwaltney(who wrote and directed a movie titled Cardboard Boxer and wrote a movie titled Kidnap starring Halle Berry that will come out in 2017) is my best friend - I’ve known him since the day I was born, because our moms are best friends and we grew up together in Virginia. We had a comic book company when we were kids. We would draw comics, staple them together, and then sell them to our uncles or whomever. And we were always obsessed withMarvel Comicsthrough the 1980s, long before there was aSam RaimiSpider-Man movie. We had loved this X-Men spinoff,The New Mutants. We had lovedBill Sienkiewicz’s run withChris Claremontthat had Demon Bear. It was really dark, interesting, and different from the typicalX-Menstories that we had read. After I madeThe Fault in Our Stars, we made Fox a comic book. It walked them through a trilogy ofNew Mutantfilms that would build on each other. We used this program called Comic Life, and took all the images we had loved from the series and strung them together to show them the movie we wanted to do. We brought it to Simon and he really liked it. We’ve been going for the past year and a half to get it ready, and I’m about to go location scout and we have a release date now.”
This is the first we’re hearing about a release date forThe New Mutants, and the possible involvement of Demon Bear as the villain. In the Marvel comics, Demon Bear was created by mutating William and Peg Lonestar. The Demon Bear haunted the dreams of their daughter Danielle Moonstar, claiming he had killed her parents and would eventually come and kill her. Back in May,Josh Boonetook to Instagram to reveal whichNew Mutants characterswill be used in this film. The characters revealed were Magik, Wolfsbane, Dani Moonstar, Cannonball, Sunspot and Warlock. An unconfirmed rumor surfaced in March that claimedGame of ThronesstarMaisie Williamswill play Wolfsbane, a.k.a. Rahne Sinclair, withThe WitchstarAnya Taylor-Joyreportedly signing on to play Magik, a.k.a. Illya Rasputin, the younger sister of Colossus. That report also claimed thatX-Men: ApocalypsestarAlexandra Shippwill return as Storm, withSophie Turner(Jean Grey),Tye Sheridan(Cyclops) andKodi Smit-McPhee(Nightcrawler) also being eyed to return. The filmmaker added that he also brought inScott NeustadterandMichael H. Weberto work on the script, which he doesn’t think will ever be fully finished until filming has wrapped.
“New Mutantsis different - when you work with a studio, you’re not in a bubble. The process of writing becomes a much different thing because you have so many people who have an opinion since the movie is so expensive. It’s a balance of getting to do things in a bubble, which I’d say is the best way of writing anything, and then having to negotiate all the politics of studio filmmaking, which is its own special beast. With New Mutants, we wrote a few drafts, and I brought inScott NeustadterandMike Weber, who are the friends of mine that adaptedThe Fault in Our Stars, to do a draft while we did something else. My guess is that it will never be done until we’re done shooting! It’s a different experience, because on my last two movies I went into shooting them with very locked scripts. I knew every beat of what they were going to be. This has been different because it’s constantly morphed as we’ve gone along. It will probably continue to morph as we’re making it.”
If production does in fact start sometime next year, it’s possible that 20th Century Fox could be eyeing a summer 2018 release date forThe New Mutants, but that hasn’t been announced by the studio yet. Perhaps we’ll get an official announcement soon, along with the first casting details. Regardless of when it comes out,The New Mutantsis certainly shaping up to be a highly-anticipated superhero adventure.
