Henry Zaga has now closed his deal to play the mutant Sunspot in the upcoming X-Men franchise installment, New Mutants. The next project from The Fault in Our Stars director Josh Boone, New Mutants is currently in the final stages of assembling its primary cast together, ahead of filming beginning in July. So far, the movie's all-but officially confirmed cast includes Anya Taylor-Joy (Split), Maisie Williams (Game of Thrones) and Charlie Heaton (Stranger Things); with Rosario Dawson set to portray Dr. Cecilia Reyes, a mutant herself and "mentor" to the title characters.

New Mutants revolves around a group of five young adult mutants held captive in a secret facility, where they must come to terms with their troubled pasts and learn to control their superpowers, if they are to have any chance of escaping. Zaga, who plays Tony's boyfriend Brad in the first season of the hit Netflix TV series 13 Reasons Why, had been rumored for the role of Sunspot (aka. Roberto da Costa) in New Mutants, ahead of this new report that formally confirms his involvement with Boone's X-Men spinoff.

Tracking Board confirmed the news about Zaga as part of its report about Heaton entering talks to play Cannonball aka. Sam Guthrie in New Mutants. With Taylor-Joy set to play Illyana Rasputin (aka. Magik) and Williams lined up for the role of Rahne Sinclair (aka. Wolfsbane) in the film, that leaves the role of Danielle Moonstar (aka. Mirage) as the last of the five main New Mutants roles to be filled. As it were, relative newcomers Blu Hunt and True O’Brien are reported to be the front-runners for the role of Mirage, at the moment.

Sunspot in The Avengers

Sunspot, as it were, has the ability to absorb and channel/control solar energy and was previously brought to life in the X-Men movie universe by Adan Canto, in the 2014 film X-Men: Days of Future Past. Like Zaga, Sunspot is from Brazil in the X-Men comic book universe, with the character having made his comic page debut back in the early 1980s (like most of the best-known New Mutants characters). Known for being fiercely loyal to his teammates, if also the most hot-headed and impulsive among them, the casting of Zaga as the Sunspot character only further cements the young adult vibe of Boone's X-Men spinoff in general.

Boone has described his vision for New Mutants as being that of a "full-fledged horror movie" that explores coming of age issues, through the lens of a darker superhero story. The comparison has already been made between Boone's plans for New Mutants and Stephen King stories like Carrie (as well as the thematic descendants of King's work, like Stranger Things) and it's an appropriate one, as Boone has made it no secret that he's a fan of the author's literature; he's even loosely attached to direct film adaptations of King's The Stand and Revival, down the line. Beyond that, the idea of New Mutants being a horror movie is another interesting development in the ongoing evolution of the larger X-Men franchise, following in Deadpool and Logan's footsteps in their efforts to integrate different genre elements into the cinematic X-Men universe.

NEXT: X-23 Unlikely to Join New Mutants or X-Men Movies

Source: Tracking Board

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