X-Men: The New Mutants will be "a full-fledged horror movie," says director

2018 is set to be the busiest year yet for 20th Century Fox’s ‘X-Men’ franchise, with no less than three films set in the comic book movie universe scheduled for release.

While two of these films – ‘Deadpool 2’ and ‘X-Men: Dark Phoenix’ – will be direct sequels to 2016’s ‘Deadpool’ and ‘X-Men: Apocalypse,’ the first to arrive will be an all-new property to the big screen: ‘X-Men: The New Mutants,’ an adaptation of the ‘X-Men’ offshoot first published by Marvel Comics in 1982.

However, for those fearing just more of the same, it may come as a welcome surprise that the film’s writer-director Josh Boone is promising something unlike any existing ‘X-Men’ movie.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, the ‘Fault in our Stars’ filmmaker (also attached to the long in-development movie of Stephen King’s ‘The Stand’) says, “We are making a full-fledged horror movie set within the X-Men universe. There are no costumes. There are no supervillains. We’re trying to do something very, very different.”

Boone says the film will draw on artist Bill Sienkiewicz’s run on ‘The New Mutants.’ Hailing Sienkiewicz as “one of the most amazing comic book artists ever,” the director explains this period of the comic was “a darker and more surreal and impressionistic X-Men series than we’d ever seen before. It felt like Stephen King meets John Hughes.”

Doesn’t necessarily sound too far removed from beloved Netflix series ‘Stranger Things’ – nor, for that matter, the recent ‘X-Men’ TV series ‘Legion,’ which explored mutation in a far more bizarre, nightmarish manner than the movies have done thus far.

Considering that approach proved effective on the small screen, there’s little reason to think something similar couldn’t work on the big screen too.

Boone reveals little else about ‘The New Mutants,’ but it is known that, like the comic before it, the film will centre on a group of young, inexperienced mutants just getting to grips with their bizarre new abilities.

An unnamed source gave EW this unofficial synopsis: “Held in a secret facility against their will, five new mutants have to battle the dangers of their powers, as well as the sins of their past. They aren’t out to save the world — they’re just trying to save themselves.”

Maisie Williams (‘Game of Thrones’) has been cast as Wolfsbane alongside Anya Taylor-Joy (‘The Witch,’ ‘Split’) as Magik, and news recently broke that Rosario Dawson is in talks to appear as Cecilia Reyes, effectively the Charles Xavier of ‘The New Mutants’ who teaches the youngsters how to control their powers – although, if things are indeed getting horrific, it seems safe to assume Cecilia won’t have as much success as Charles.

Even so, it is mentioned that ‘X-Men: The New Mutants’ is shooting with a PG-13 rating in mind (which generally leads to a 12A or occasionally 15 certificate in the UK), so as horror goes, it’s likely to be more ‘Insidious’ than ‘Saw.’

‘X-Men: The New Mutants’ is scheduled to open in UK cinemas on 13 April 2018.

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