The X-Men universe is about to get a big hit of darkness in the upcoming horror offshoot film that is The New Mutants with a Spring 2020 UK release date (see details below). It’s set within a government facility for mutant children, which kind of acts as the haunted house setup for the film, and from the look of the teaser trailer below, they’ve got a lot more than the oppressive institution to deal with.
Directed by Josh Boone, it’s the latest X-Men film to take the franchise in new directions following on from the R-rated action of Logan earlier in 2017. The cast is made up of young newcomers with Maisie Williams being the most recognisable name, having starred in significant roles in Game Of Thrones and Doctor Who.
UK release date
The New Mutants has now been confirmed for a UK release date of Wednesday the 8th April 2020 having been put back from it’s initial date of the 13th April 2018. It won’t have much in the way of box office competition from any new films out on the same weekend, but with the latest James Bond flick No Time To Die out the week before it’ll still have a challenge to stand out from the shaken, not stirred crowd.
The UK release is a little later than in the US where the film will be coming out on the 3rd April 2020. We suspect the difference is to do with the clash with No Time To Die, which will have preference in the UK, but is itself out a week later in the US for the opposite reason.
Story
The film gives a new slant to the storyline from its Marvel Comics roots. Instead of being a teen fighting force being trained by the likes of Charles Xavier, Magneto and Cable, they’re a group of young mutants being held at a secret facility to stop them from being able to do damage out in society.
However, there’s clearly a very sinister force imprisoned at the site with them, so things are set to get pretty bleak for the characters. It’s a fairly small roster for the beginning of The New Mutants spin-off on the big screen, so not all of the characters from the Comic have made it in. At the moment, the character list includes Magik, Wolfsbane, Cannonball, Sunspot And Mirage.
Cast
Maisie Williams will be playing Rahne Sinclair / Wolfsbane, whose mutant power is to be able to turn into a wolf. She’s joined by Charlie Heaton (Stranger Things Series 2) as Cannonball, whose power is to turn into a human cannonball that is invulnerable when in flight. Anya Taylor-Joy (Glass) plays Illyana Rasputin / Magik, Colossus’s sister, who has seemingly magical, witch-like powers.
The cast also includes Henry Zaga (Teen Wolf) as Roberto da Costa / Sunspot, who can harness the power of the sun, and Blu Hunt (The Originals) as Danielle Moonstar / Mirage, who can manipulate people’s minds. Alice Braga (Elysium) will be playing the Doctor at the facility looking after the mutants.
Production
In addition to directing the film, Josh Boone is also co-writer of the screenplay for The New Mutants alongside Knate Lee (Kidnap). Simon Kinberg, Karen Rosenfelt and Lauren Shuler Donner are down as producers. You can see more on the production at the film’s official Twitter page at twitter.com/newmutantsfilm, or the Facebook page at facebook.com/newmutantsfilm.
First impressions
We’re looking forward too seeing The New Mutants on the big screen to find out how well it can make things stick. It’s great to see superhero films given a new and interesting slant – something that was done so well in Logan – and you can’t help but admire a production that puts all its faith on the talents of a young, up-and-coming cast.
It’s hard to see how it’s going to manage to be all that scary, but having a dark and genuinely sinister setup should be enough to give this a good run at the box office. The teaser trailer is strong and the recent arrival of trailer 1 continues the positives, but isn’t anything that you can say is actually scary, so it’ll be interesting to see whether or not the film istelf has any real jumps when the UK release date rolls around in April 2020.
