Arriving overnight, the first trailer for director Josh Boone's The New Mutants reveals a corner of Fox's X-Men universe unlike any we've seen in the past 17 years. It's a full-fledged horror movie, as promised, not a superhero action-adventure.

RELATED: The Demon Bear Saga, the Definitive New Mutants Storyline, Explained

Stacey Snider, co-chairman of 20th Century Fox, had compared the film not so much to the studio's previous X-Men releases as to The Shining and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, which doesn't appear to have been marketing hyperbole: The trailer promises a haunted-house movie -- with mutants -- set in an aging hospital or mental institution.

Although Boone and his co-writer Knate Lee are said to have drawn inspiration from "The Demon Bear Saga," the seminal 1984 New Mutants storyline by Chris Claremont and Bill Sienkiewicz, you won't see any enormous demonic bears in the trailer's footage. You will, however, find plenty of tension, some jump-scares and at least a couple of things that may defy explanation. We break down the teaser's elements below.

That's NOT the X-Mansion

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The New Mutants were introduced in 1982 by Marvel Comics as the younger students at Charles Xavier's School For Gifted Youngsters, but in this adaptation there's no Professor X, no school and, presumably, no X-Men. Instead, these teenage mutants are held against their will in a secret facility, clearly one with secrets of its own.

There, they undergo scientific tests and surveillance and, as we see in the trailer, withstand a barrage of horrors. For what purpose isn't clear just yet, but Alice Braga's Dr. Cecilia Reyes assures it's for their own good. "Did you know that baby rattlesnakes are more dangerous than adult ones?" she tells Danielle Moonstar (played by Blu Hunt). "They haven't learned to control how much venom is secreted. All of you are dangerous; that's why you're here."

Dr. Cecilia Reyes (But Maybe Not the One We Know)

alice braga in new mutants

Introduced in 1997 in X-Men #65, the Cecilia Reyes of Marvel Comics was a mutant who vowed to become a doctor after her father was gunned down. Offered a place by Charles Xavier at his school, Cecilia initially turned him down, opting instead to continue her residency as a trauma surgeon at Our Mother of Mercy Hospital in the Bronx. She later joined the X-Men for a time, but never really took to the life of a superhero.

RELATED: First Trailer For The New Mutants, Fox's X-Men Horror Spinoff

The Dr. Cecilia Reyes played by Alice Braga in The New Mutants doesn't appear to have been in common with her comic-book counterpart. Although the character was described in early reports as a "mentor," essentially filling the void left by Xavier's absence from the film, this trailer casts her in a somewhat-sinister light. Does she want to help these young mutants -- these "baby rattlesnakes" -- or does she have ulterior motives?

Danielle Moonstar (Mirage)

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Played by Blu Hunt (The Originals), Danielle Moonstar is central to the early New Mutants stories, and to "The Demon Bear Saga," so it's no surprise that she's featured prominently in the trailer. Originally code-named Psyche and later Mirage in Marvel comics, Dani possesses the psionic ability to project illusions of her opponents' greatest fears and wishes. One of the first manifestations of her power was a vision of a demonic bear killing her parents, so when they disappeared while on a hunting trip, she blamed herself.

Dani's abilities may be central to The New Mutants film, helping to explain the nightmarish visions -- at least we think they're only visions -- that plague the patients throughout the teaser trailer.

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Bring Out Your Dead

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In the trailer's opening moments, Dr. Reyes asks, "Have you ever hurt someone?," after which we're shown an image of a cemetery in which the gravestones are chillingly inscribed with numbers rather than names. "Yes," Dani, responds, perhaps leading us to conclude that her uncontrolled mutant abilities have resulted in at least ... 139 deaths?

That's highly unlikely, though. Instead, this is probably the cemetery of the secret facility, suggesting not only that its staff views the patients as only numbers but also that its treatments (or experiments) haven't been particularly successful.

Ilyana Rasputin (Magik)

new mutants movie

Anya Taylor-Joy (Atlantis) plays Ilyana Rasputin, aka Magik, who in X-Men comics lore is the younger sister of Colossus, brought as a child to the extradimensional Limbo, where she was raised and tormented before becoming its ruler. A mutant with teleporting powers, Ilyana is Sorcerer Supreme of Limbo, who, in addition to her other mystical abilities, is able to summon a Soulsword that can disrupt magical energies and creatures.

None of those powers is on display in the teaser trailer, so we're left to guess whether the film will delve into Ilyana's mystical side. While "The Demon Bear Saga" was central to the development of Dani Moonstar, and to The New Mutants series, it also served as a turning point for Ilyana: New to the team at the time of the storyline, she had to reveal her past to the other students, and earn their trust, in order to save Dani (and everyone else).

Roberto de Costa (Sunspot)

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Another of the founding members of the New Mutants, the impulsive Roberto "Bobby" de Costa, aka Sunspot, can absorb and channel solar energy, giving him superhuman strength and the ability to fire concussive blasts and project light and heat. In Marvel comics, at least; he doesn't seem to display any of those powers in the trailer (well, there's one possible scene a little later, which we'll get around to).

Portrayed, briefly, in 2014's X-Men: Days of Future Past by Adan Canto, Sunspot is played in The New Mutants by Henry Zaga, best known for his role on Netfix's 13 Reasons Why.

Rahne Sinclair (Wolfsbane)

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Game of Thrones star Maisie Williams was rumored as early as April 2016 to be playing Rahne Sinclair, the shape-shifting New Mutants better known as Wolfsbane, and it's easy to see why. Here she embodies the repressed Scottish girl from the comics, an orphan whose religion was beaten into her at an early age by an abusive pastor.

The trailer doesn't depict Rahne shifting into her wolf form -- there's undoubtedly plenty of CGI  work left to be done -- but we can rest assured she does wolf-out in the film, because director Josh Boone revealed concept art in February.

Sam Guthrie (Cannonball)

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Charlie Heaton of Netflix's hit Stranger Things rounds at the film's central cast as Sam Guthrie, better known as Cannonball. In the comics he was the eldest of 10 children, and the eldest member of the New Mutants, assuming the big-brother role at home in Kentucky and at Xavier's school. As his code name suggests, he can generate thermo-chemical energy, propelling his body through the air at great height and speed like, well, a cannonball.

While in flight, Sam is said in the comics to be "nigh invulnerable," but given that his arm is in a sling in the trailer, we have to wonder if that's the case on film. Of course, it's certainly possible his injury isn't the result of his powers but rather violence.

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Fire in the Hole

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In one sequence in the trailer, Sam Guthrie creeps toward a washing machine in the facility's laundry room that trembles with a steady pounding, as if by a foot or ... a fist. As he inches close, an open hand presses against the glass of the door, and the drum bursts into flames. This could be Henry Zaga's Sunspot trapped within and unleashing his powers while in a state of panic, or it may be one of several manifestations of the mysterious "haunting" at the hospital.

Just wait, it gets weirder -- and creepier -- from here.

The Walls Have Ears ... and Faces

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Danielle Moonstar is tormented by faces in the wall that look like something out of 1996's The Frighteners. There's a chance, of course, that the primary setting of The New Mutants is simply haunted -- after all, it appears as if plenty of people of died in the facility -- but it seems far more probable that Dani's mutant abilities are at least partly responsible for these nightmarish events.

If, as in the comic books, Dani can project illusions of someone's greatest fears, it makes sense that in the film she's inadvertently creating horrible visions to torment herself and others. There's more evidence to support that possibility ...

Canary in the Coal Mine

new mutants movie

It's impossible to say whether this scene, set within a dark dusty coal mine, is a flashback or a nightmare -- and either would make sense. In Marvel comics, Sam Guthrie worked to support his family in the same Kentucky coal mine where his father had died. When one day Sam was trapped within a collapsing mine shaft, he unconsciously triggered is mutant powers, saving himself and a co-worker.

The odds are good this is a vision, keying into a fear of being buried underground, or else turned on by the men he toiled with every day.

Young Ilyana?

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This would appear to be Ilyana Rasputin as a child, about the age when, in Marvel Comics lore, she was brought to Limbo and raised and tormented by a demon doing the bidding of an evil sorcerer. Although only seconds had passed on Earth, when Ilyana returned from Limbo she was 13 years old.

As with the coal mine scene, it's difficult to say whether this is a flashback to when Ilyana was abducted -- by whatever the film's answer is to the sorcerer Belasco and the demon S'ym -- or a manifestation of her fears, of living through the ordeal again. It's worth noting that young Ilyana looks to be holding a stuffed purple dragon, a nod to Lockheed, the irritable alien dragon who in Marvel comics was a frequent companion of Kitty Pryde, and occasionally of Magik.

Could This Be ... Warlock?

new mutants movie

Evoking the weirdest scene of The Shining, this unnervingly incongruous shot of Ilyana and Sam entering a room only to find some kind of creature wearing silk pajamas and a smiley-face mask is certainly the stuff of nightmares. But what if it isn't? What if that creature is ... Warlock?

Introduced in an unrelated subplot in "The Demon Bear Saga," he's a shape-changing alien from a world of techno-organic beings who flees his father -- the planet's ruler -- and ends up at Xavier's school, drawn by the alien Shi'ar technology within the mansion. Confused,  Warlock initially clashes with the New Mutants before being befriended by them. Although the character's inclusion in the film was never announced, it's been long expected he would appear. Is it possible this creepy fellow is Boone's horror-tinged interpretation of Warlock?


Arriving April 13, 2018, director Josh Boone's The New Mutants stars Maisie Williams (Game of Thrones) as Wolfsbane, Henry Zaga (13 Reasons Why) as Sunspot, Charlie Heaton (Stranger Things) as Cannonball, Anya Taylor-Joy (Atlantis) as Magik, Blu Hunt (The Originals) as Danielle Moonstar and Alice Braga (Queen of the South) as Dr. Cecilia Reyes.