When The New Mutants finally hit theaters, there were two members of the young team missing from the film. The first was Magma, who director Josh Boone explained he left out because the mutant had a complicated history that he didn't want to distract from the plot of his story. The second was Warlock, an alien who is not a mutant but is still an essential part of New Mutants' history.

Fans of the "Demon Bear Saga," the comic the movie is based on, never expected Warlock to be in the film to begin with because he only appeared in a side story in the narrative and was on a crash course to Earth at the time the New Mutants were battling the Demon Bear to save Dani. But the word is Boone had plans to include the character in his film anyway. However, Boone later said he removed Warlock for budgetary reasons. The studio would not officially greenlight the movie without a lower budget, and that meant Warlock had to go. But who exactly is Warlock? Here's what you need to know.

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Warlock was introduced in 1984's New Mutants #18, which was where Dani first battled the Demon Bear, landing on death's door. Warlock, on the other hand, was running for his life through outer space. The alien was part of the Technarchy, an artificial intelligence created by the Phalanx. One of the strangest things about these beings is their fathers fought their sons to the death after they were born. Warlock, however, refused to fight and instead fled.

It wasn't until New Mutants #21, the issue after the young team slew the Demon Bear and saved Dani, that they met Warlock. The girls were having a slumber party to celebrate Dani coming home from the hospital while Sam and Roberto enjoyed a baseball game. That is when Warlock crashed to Earth, and Sam brought him to the mansion for Professor X to examine. However, before Xavier returned, Warlock regained consciousness. The New Mutants mistake him as a threat and attack him. By the end, the kids realize he is there seeking shelter, and they ask Xavier to take him in and help him. This issue is also where the character Doug Ramsey learns he is a mutant and joins the team. The connection between Doug and Warlock becomes the foundation for both characters' existence in Marvel Comics.

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The character quickly became beloved as a result of his compassion and quirks, which helped make him a hero unlike any other.  His powers were incredible as he was a shapeshifter, which meant artist Bill Sienkiewicz's only limitation when it came to what he could create using the new hero was his imagination.

Warlock played a significant role in event storylines like Annihilation: Conquest and X-Men: Second Coming before he died. He was brought back somehow in Dawn of X, where he and Doug are still partially merged within the island of Krakoa, or at least they are pretending this is the case.

Had Disney not acquired Fox's Marvel characters, Boone had plans for a movie trilogy that would have included Warlock in the sequels. Although it will never happen now, according to Boone, he planned to follow up his adaptation of the "Demon Bear Saga" by introducing both Warlock and Karma in the second movie and then finishing off the trilogy with the X-Men crossover story, Inferno.

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. Cecilia Reyes. The film is now in theaters.

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