An early version of The New Mutants planned to more explicitly connect it to the main X-Men films through appearances by a pair of famous mutants: Professor X and Storm.
"We were lucky. They really did want it to be different than other stuff," New Mutants writer and director Josh Boone told Slashfilm, "They really pushed us to keep it separate from X-Men stuff, even though it's set in the X-Men universe." He added that its setting in the '80s inspired one particular connection, "Originally, Professor X and Storm were in it, and Storm very much played the Alice Braga role."
Plans changed when a new studio head was brought in. Boone explained, "They said they didn't want any X-Men movies to take place in the past anymore, as if that was the reason that Apocalypse was bad." The director then stated that they were forced to rewrite in such a way that the film's temporal setting was left ambiguous. He added, "They talk about Professor X and those things, but it doesn't have cameos from anyone or anything like that."
Directed and co-written by Josh Boone, The New Mutants stars Maisie Williams as Rahne Sinclair/Wolfsbane, Anya Taylor-Joy as Illyana Rasputin/Magik, Charlie Heaton as Sam Guthrie/Cannonball, Henry Zaga as Roberto da Costa/Sunspot, Blu Hunt as Danielle Moonstar/Mirage and Alice Braga as Dr. Cecelia Reyes. The film arrives in theaters Aug. 28.