Maisie Williams has confirmed The New Mutants includes a same-sex romance, but promises it isn't a "gimmick". The final X-Men movie produced by Fox before it was bought by Disney, The New Mutants will finally reach theaters next month after two years' worth of delays. Based on the comics created by Chris Claremont and Bob McLeod, the film revolves around five young mutants who find themselves trapped in a secret facility against their will. For that reason, co-writer and director Josh Boone (The Fault in Our Stars) has long described the movie as a cross between a John Hughes YA drama and a Stephen King horror-thriller, but with superheroes.
In addition to being the rare crossover between the superhero and horror genres, it was previously rumored The New Mutants includes a same-sex romance featuring the mutants Rahne Sinclar aka. Wolfsbane (Williams) and Danielle Moonstar aka. Mirage (Blu Hunt). While it wouldn't be the first time a Fox-Marvel movie has featured a queer couple (see: Negasonic Teenage Warhead and Yukio in Deadpool 2), New Mutants would still be the first Marvel film to feature a same-sex love story between two main characters. Now, Williams and Boone have made the news official, while at the same time offering their assurances it will amount to more than just lip-service.
Speaking to EW, Boone confirmed Wolfsbane and Mirage have "a beautiful love story" in The New Mutants and said it forms "sort of the spine and focus of some of the character-driven stuff in the film." Williams went on to explain how the characters' super-powers allows them to form a mental and emotional link that brings them all the closer together over the course of their journey in the movie.
"Rahne and Dani have a telepathic connection in the comics, and so we just wanted to extend that in the film and put that within reality. If they really could understand each other on that level, then you’d probably end up falling in love with that person."
Recently, Disney-backed movies like The New Mutants have become infamous for featuring queer representation in the form of blink-and-you'll-miss-it references to characters' sexual orientation. The most infamous examples include LeFou briefly dancing with a man at the end of the live-action Beauty and the Beast, two women kissing in the background as the members of the Resistance celebrate their victory over Palpatine and the Final Order in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and, just this past week, a cyclops (voiced by Lena Waithe) mentioning she has a girlfriend in Pixar's animated feature Onward. Williams, speaking to EW, claimed the Wolfsbane and Mirage love story is "not something that is spoken about too much in the film", but also insisted it's not a "gimmick" like the aforementioned scenes.
"It's not really a story about these two characters understanding their sexuality. It’s not centered around that and they don’t really necessarily label it. No one else does either and no one really questions it."
In fairness, it makes sense for the Wolfsbane and Mirage romance to be a sub-plot in The New Mutants. After all, they're only two of the five main characters in the film, and most of the movie will presumably focus on the leads trying to control their powers and break out of the facility where they're being kept against their will. Keeping that in mind, it's hard to not be skeptical whenever mainstream films promise to deliver better queer representation since it's essentially been a gimmick used by studios to appear more inclusive so far. Still, between The New Mutants and this fall's Eternals being confirmed to introduce the first gay superhero and kiss in the MCU, it's possible Disney will finally begin to improve in this area.
Source: EW
