One of my favorite comics growing up was Marvel’s “New Mutants” – but I didn’t really become a fan until the latter issues (drawn by Rob Liefeld) introduced Cable and Deadpool, two of my favorite comics in my collection.
The New Mutants is a group of teenaged mutant superheroes-in-training created by Chris Claremont and artist Bob McLeod. Having not kept up since the 90s, Wiki explains that the second “New Mutants” series, launched in 2003, featured a new group of teenage mutants. Unlike the original “New Mutants”, they were part of a huge cast of students at the Xavier Institute. In 2004, it was relaunched as “New X-Men: Academy X”, after which the central group was formally dubbed the “New Mutants.” In the aftermath of the “M-Day” crossover storyline in late 2005, the remaining students were merged into one junior team, the New X-Men. A third “New Mutants” series, reuniting most of the original team, was launched in May 2009.
With the monstrous success of the X-Men and accompanying Marvel films, it was only a matter of time until an adaptation of New Mutants was put into development. Announced in 2015, Josh Boone is directing from a screenplay by Boone/Knate Lee and Scott Neustadter/Michael H. Weber. And while Maisie Williams (“Game of Thrones”) was rumored to be targeted for Wolfsbane, and Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch) was pegged for Magik, things have been relatively silent.
Now, out of thin air comes new details and a storyboard animatic for a sequence that confirms the main antagonist: the fan-favorite Demon Bear.
The Demon Bear, which first appeared in “New Mutants” #3, draws his power from negative human emotion. The beast is also capable of teleportation and corrupting souls.
CS‘s sources indicate the feature will be a big departure from the sci-fi-action spectacle of other X-Men films and is instead being described as a “Stephen King meets John Hughes”-style horror movie. A comparison that might make people think of this summer’s hit series “Stranger Things”, albeit with even more super powers, the site adds.
They’re also told that New Mutants is being targeted for a spring 2018 release date and that the previously rumored casting is in fact accurate. There’s also another familiar face being eyed for the cast of the film with Nat Wolff (who starred in Boone’s The Fault in Our Stars) as the mutant Cannonball.
This is all incredibly exciting but it also feels a bit like a desperation move on the same level as when the Deadpool screen test leaked. The difference here is that a lame storyboard animatic isn’t going to get Marvel fans demanding a New Mutants film. So, if the movie is secretly in trouble, this isn’t going to save it…