The New Mutants director Josh Boone has indicated that he wants his spine-tingling movie to kickstart a trilogy of horror-infused X-Men films. He revealed that this project, influenced by the Bill Sienkiewicz and Chris Claremont run from the '80s, was pitched to Fox as a three-part series, and that he felt it was the right way to truly stand out from your run-of-the-mill mutant story.
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"We brought it to FOX as a trilogy of films, really all based on that long run by Sienkiewicz, and kind of incorporates some stuff from later issues in the ’80s. These are all going to be horror movies, and they’re all be their own distinct kind of horror movies," he said to IGN. "This is certainly the ‘rubber-reality’ supernatural horror movie. The next one will be a completely different kind of horror movie. Our take was just go examine the horror genre through comic book movies and make each one its own distinct sort of horror film. Drawing from the big events that we love in the comics.”
The first trailer hinted at such without giving too much away, showing the likes of Magik, Wolfsbane, Sunspot, Mirage and Cannonball stuck in a haunted facility while trying to understand their mutant powers. Boone will be adapting the "The Demon Bear Saga" with a supernatural monster tagged to Mirage coming after the youngsters, as seen from the debut trailer which was clearly built on tension, psychological suspense and a very big sense of dread.
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With Deadpool 2 and X-Men: Dark Phoenix out next year, The New Mutants has a chance to set the bar high as it's out first, with Boone already eyeing an expanded cast for a sequel. He hopes his first foray into comic book movies will also pave the way for more horror-related comic properties given that directors such as James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy), David F. Sandberg (Shazam!), and James Wan (Aquaman) all cut their teeth in the horror genre before transitioning to superhero movies.
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.