The premiere of X-Men: Apocalypse is right around the corner, but New Mutants director Josh Boone just dropped some big news about his upcoming X-Men spinoff project that will introduce another set of young mutants to the franchise.
In a series of posts on Instagram, Boone revealed the lineup of characters that will appear in New Mutants, while also leaving some mysteries about additional, supporting characters and the film’s cast.
Boone announced the lineup of the mutant team in a series of updates on Instagram featuring comic-book art of each character. The characters included Magik, the teleporting sister of the steel-skinned mutant Colossus; Wolfsbane, a girl who can change into a feral, wolf-like creature; Mirage (aka Dani Moonstar), who can create illusions based on people’s deepest fears; Cannonball, a teenage boy who can propel himself through the air via explosive energy; Sunspot, who can absorb and channel the sun’s radiation; and the eccentric Warlock,a techno-organic entity that can change its shape.
Boone also hinted that the miniature dragon Lockheed could appear in the film, making note of the character with a hashtag “#lockheedstail” in the caption for one of the images. The dragon was a sidekick of sorts for the character Kitty Pryde in the Marvel Comics universe — the same character played by Ellen Page in 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand and 2014’s X-Men: Days of Future Past.
At this point, there’s no official word on the cast of the film, but rumors have suggested that both Alexandra Shipp and James McAvoy will reprise their X-Men: Apocalypse roles as Storm and Charles Xavier, respectively, in the film. A recent rumor also indicated that Game of Thrones actress Maisie Williams is circling the role of Wolfsbane, and The Witch actress Anya Taylor-Joy is doing the same with the role of Magik.
Set to be written and directed by Boone (The Fault in our Stars), New Mutants is being framed as a young-adult spin on the X-Men films, much like the original comic-book series that inspired it, which explored a group of teenage mutants coming of age at Charles Xavier’s school. The series, which debuted in 1982 and was created by Chris Claremont and Bob McLeod, initially spent as much time exploring the emotions of its young characters as it did sending them on exciting adventures.
There’s no official release date for the film yet.