New X-Men spinoff casts two characters

New Mutants finds actors to play Wolfsbane and Magik The X-Men spinoff film New Mutants is moving forward and has now signed two actors. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Maisie Williams (Game of Thrones) and Anya Taylor-Joy (Split) have joined the film. Josh Boone (The Fault in Our Stars) is directing, with production set to […]

New Mutants finds actors to play Wolfsbane and Magik

The X-Men spinoff film New Mutants is moving forward and has now signed two actors.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Maisie Williams (Game of Thrones) and Anya Taylor-Joy (Split) have joined the film. Josh Boone (The Fault in Our Stars) is directing, with production set to begin in July.

Taylor-Joy, who broke out as the star of the 17th-century horror story The Witch, will play Magik, a young sorceress with teleportation powers who is also the sister of the X-Men bruiser Colossus. Williams, known for her role as Arya Stark on the HBO hit Game of Thrones, will portray Wolfsbane, a lycanthrope struggling to reconcile her powers with her religious beliefs.

The movie follows teen characters Moonstar, Wolfsbane, Sunspot, Cannonball, Magik, and Warlock. Williams is lined up to play Wolfsbane, who is apparently struggling to “reconcile her religious beliefs with her power to turn into a wolf.” 

It has been reported that the movie might be a departure from the more traditional superhero action of the other X-Men films, with a story in Coming Soon describing it as a “teen horror movie.” This ties into comments made last year by X-Men producer Simon Kinberg, who said that it would have “its own unique, original voice.”

Josh Boone is directing The New Mutants from a script he wrote with Knate Gwaltney. Based on the Marvel comic first published in 1982, the film will focus on a diverse group of teenage mutants who are still coming of age. Sources have said the project will have a “John Hughes meets Stephen King” vibe.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, which first reported Taylor-Joy and Williams’ signing on, the movie is slated to begin production in July.

Uproxx reported last year that Taylor-Joy and Williams were being eyed for The New Mutants, and Williams told EW a few weeks later that she “would absolutely love to be a part of it.”

In December, an animatic of a potential action sequence from the movie was released, the authenticity of which was confirmed by Boone.

New Mutants opens on April 13, 2018.