The New Mutants could be the next evolution of the X-Men film franchise. Fox recruited Josh Boone (The Fault In Our Stars) to direct a spinoff film based on the spinoff comic.
Teen angst, isolation, romantic crushes and finding new friends from diverse worlds – mixed with emerging mutant powers, danger room sessions and crazy villains – it’s all in a day at Xavier’s School. The New Mutants are perfect back to school basics to evolve the franchise.
Who will join the cast and who will they fight?
Here’s New Mutants 101:
Danielle Moonstar/Mirage is a Cheyenne girl who could create three dimensional illusions. Dani would become co-leader of the team and later a Valkyrie!
Sam Guthrie/Cannonball is a Kentucky boy from a poor family who worked in the mines. His power to create a near invulnerable blasting force field kicked in during a cave collapse. Sam became team co-leader.
Xi’an Coy Mahn/Karma is a Vietnamese girl who later came out of the closet. Karma has the power to possess minds.
Rhane Sinclair/Wolfsbane is a young girl from Scotland with the ability to transform into a werewolf type form and even a wolf.
Roberto Da Costa/Sunspot is a rich Brazilian boy with super strength fueled by absorbing solar energy. Sunspot appeared as part of the future X-Men in Days of Future Past.
Amara Aquila/Magma was discovered in Nova Roma, a lost city in the Amazon jungle with the power to transform into a being of magma and blast lava.
Illyana Rasputin/Magik is the little sister of Colossus. Illyana was kidnapped as a child by the demon Belasco of Limbo. Illyana only vanished for a moment but it felt like years in Limbo so she emerged as a teenager who had become a sorceress who conquered the supernatural dimension. Illyana’s mutant power to to summon teleporting discs but the transfer point in Limbo.
Professor Xavier recruited the students but in a twist, a reformed Magneto became their headmaster. Cable (Scott Summers’ son from the future) became the team’s leader when he turned them into the pro-active X-Force.
The Villains:
Donald Pierce was the first villain the kids faced in the original graphic novel by Chris Claremont. Pierce was a cyborg in the Hellfire Club who kidnapped Professor X.
The Hellions were apprentices of the Hellfire Club and students of Emma Frost. More than a school rivalry, these ruthless mutants became long-running rivals of the team but Warpath eventually became an X-Man and you saw him in Days of Future Past.
Shadow King is the greatest long-running villains never seen in movies. Amahl Farouk is a mutant of pure psychic energy feeding off human hate. Professor X first encountered Farouk in Cairo, Egypt just after meeting a young Ororo Munroe. With powers of telepathic, possession and immortality, the Shadow King plagued generations of X-Men but has a significant story with the New Mutants. Farouk possessed Karma and eventually used her teammates in Gladiator style games of mutant vs. mutant sport for the amusement of rich patrons.
The Demon Bear haunted Dani Moonstar’s dreams. This mystical force draw energy from negative emotion and corruption of souls. The Demon Bear may not be an evil mutant but that’s part of what made New Mutants so exciting and fresh with a diverse gallery of supernatural foes and weird, even for X-Men, concepts and enemies.
Selene is an ancient psychic vampire the kids encountered in Nova Roma. Selene absorbs life force of her victims to gain her super strength and psionic abilities. Selene became a member of the Lords Cardinal, rulers of the Hellfire Club Inner Circle and long running enemy of the X-Men.
No word on how the development of New Mutants will impact Fox’s plans for a X-Force movie. In comics New Mutants evolved into X-Force.
X-Men: Apocalypse in 2016 feels like a finale of the second wave of X-films that began with First Class. Seems appropriate then that the third generation of Xavier students from comics become stars of a third generation of X-films.
By Editor