It seems like the New Mutants X-Men spinoff has been gestating for a while. It's been almost a year since the project was first announced, and it was rumored for years before that. Progress is being made, however, even if it's not going as quickly as some fans would like.

Hope is on the horizon for those eager to see the New Mutants team on the big screen. Director and co-writer Josh Boone recently revealed that the second draft of the film script has been turned in, meaning the movie is that much closer to having a final script.

Taking to Instagram, Boone shared the cover to the script that was sent to producer Simon Kinberg. Unlike the plain text that is often seen on shared scripts, this one featured black-and-white graphics of a brick wall with "NEW MUTANTS" scrawled across it in red spray paint. While the image didn't reveal much more than that (it listed the series the script was based on and the writers, and was dated April 2016), the way it was presented suggested this wasn't going to be just another X-Men movie.

Sadly, there is no way of knowing how many more script revisions will be required before the final version is ready. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 took five revisions before reaching its final script, and some films have taken more than that. Hopefully Boone will continue to let fans know how the script is progressing so we'll have an idea of how close the movie is to actually filming.

Though no official word on casting has come from Fox, it's been reported that the film is looking at Maisie Williams as Wolfsbane, Anya Taylor-Joy as Magik, and Alexandria Shipp as Storm (in a reprisal of her role from X-Men: Apocalypse), among other characters. If the rumors are true, it makes one wonder when the film will take place. If Storm is on the team then it could possibly take place in the aftermath of Apocalypse when she might be new to the X-Men -- though it would make it more difficult for Magik to be the younger sister of Colossus if she was active in the 80s or early 90s. Of course, it's possible that Storm is in the film as a mentor or teacher instead and the film will take place in the present.

For now, there's little that we can do except speculate about what Boone has planned for New Mutants. A lot can change between early versions of a script and what eventually makes it to the screen, so it's possible that Boone himself doesn't even know exactly what's going to make it in. One thing's for sure, though: if it's going to live up to the promise of a New Mutants film, it needs to be more than just a younger team of X-Men. Hopefully, Boone will bring something unique to the table that makes his movie more than just X-Men lite.

Next: X-Men: Apocalypse Video Highlights the Four Horsemen

X-Men: Apocalypse opens in theaters May 27th, 2016, followed by Wolverine 3 on March 3rd, 2017, and unannounced X-Men films on October 6th, 2017 (possibly Gambit), January 12th, 2018 (possibly Deadpool 2), and July 13th, 2018. The New Mutants is also in development.

Source: Instagram (Josh Boone), via ComicBook.com