Has NEW MUTANTS Begun Casting?

Fox is probably chomping at the bit to parlay the success of Deadpool into more X-Men spinoffs. With Gambit being delayed, the company is probably turing its eyes to X-Force and New Mutants. Well, it looks like the later might be further along than we expect. Hitfix’s Drew McWeeny states that Josh Boone has already cast three parts, two of which are intriguingly positive choices.

First off, McWeeny states that Game of Thrones actress Maisie Williams is attached to play Rahne Sinclair/ Wolfsbane. Wolfsbane is a Scottish mutant whose power is lycanthropy.

While becoming a werewolf doesn’t seem like the most exciting mutant power, the character was fleshed out by having the character be a devout Christian and view her powers as a curse from the Devil. This was exacerbated by her local pastor essentially trying to burn her at the stake because of it. Making it worse, the pastor acted as her foster father, but in reality was her biological father. That’s a film in and of itself right there.

Williams seems long overdue to move on to film stardom, and I’m sure the British actress will be able to capture the Scottish character better than any other actress.

Next, Anya Taylor-Joy, who is getting great notices for her work in the current horror film  The Witch, is attached to bringing the mutant Magik to the big screen. Magik is Illyana Rasputin, sister of Peter Rasputin, a.k.a. Colossus, who is kidnapped and raised from a child up to a teen in a the hellish Limbo by the demonic Belasco. While there, she is trained in both white and black magic, and has her mutant powers of teleportation develop. Eventually, she returns to Earth ten years older than when she left, even though on Earth the trip was instantaneous.

That is just scratching the surface of the character’s history. I would go more into it, bit I doubt that most or any of it would be covered in the film.

And, yes, Taylor-Joy is going from playing a character plagued by witches to playing a witch herself. Consider New Mutants the sequel to The Witch if you want.

McWeeny also states that casting is underway for the roles of Cannonball, Sunspot (who has already made an appearance in the X-Men film mythos with vastly different powers than he has in the comics) and Mirage. The film will also feature James McAvoy’s  Professor Xavier and Alexandra Shipp’s Storm, which leads us to believe that it will take place soon after X-Men: Apocalypse.

Of course, this is not officially certified by Fox as of yet, so some or all of the details may change. But this is one rumor I truly hopes comes true, because this is a start of a really great film.