Despite there being a fairly steady stream of news coming out surrounding the project over the past year or so, not much is really known about Fox's New Mutants yet. Directed by Josh Boone (The Fault in Our Stars) the film's main cast has been rumored for quite some time, but never officially confirmed by anyone involved in the project, and the same can be said for its release date, cast, and the studio's overall franchise plans for the new spin-off title.
With all of that being said, most of the film's characters (including its villain) have all but been confirmed at this point thanks to a leaked animatic video, with the tone of New Mutants described as "Stephen King meets John Hughes-style horror" - a far different tone compared to X-Men films past. In addition, Boone himself has indicated that production on the film is set to begin in May, which makes it fair to expect that more concrete news will be coming soon. Thanks to some new comments from one of its possible lead actresses too, it appears one of the other X-Men characters rumored to appear in the film may indeed play a role in it after all.
While speaking with Coming Soon, Anya Taylor-Joy (who is rumored to be playing Ilyana Nikolievna Rasputin a.k.a. Magik, Colossus' sister in the film) not only reiterated her enthusiasm towards the project, while simultaneously avoiding confirming her involvement in it, but also possibly confirmed that James McAvoy will indeed be appearing in it as Charles Xavier/Professor X. When asked if she'd be excited about reuniting with him following their work together on M. Night Shyamalan's Split, Taylor-Joy said:
"I’m a big fan so I’d love to be a part of it. I can’t say very much, but I would love to be a part of it. I think this year’s gonna be very exciting. I mean, I think James is already a part of it, isn’t he?"
Now, take all of this with a grain of salt for the time being since Taylor-Joy doesn't per se "confirm" once and for all that McAvoy will be in New Mutants, and especially since she didn't even confirm that she'll be in it either, despite being the supposed frontrunner to play Magik ever since the first casting rumor arrived last year. Also rumored to appear in the film is Maisie Williams as Wolfsbane, Nat Wolff as Cannonball, and Alexandra Shipp, reprising her role as Storm from X-Men: Apocalypse. Both Sunspot and Mirage are also rumored to be members of the team, though that too remained unconfirmed for the time being.
New Mutants is currently projected to arrive in 2018, and Professor X's involvement would certainly make sense for it as well. After all, the main characters in the New Mutants comic books were students at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, so his role as a mentor to the kids in the film version seems like a given. The film's time period is also unknown, with some speculating that it could take place still in the 1980s (after the events of Apocalypse) and others speculating that it could be the first X-Men film set in the '90s. Hopefully, some of these questions surrounding New Mutants will be answered, sooner than later now.
Source: Coming Soon
