The Next X-Men Spinoff Will Be a Horror Movie – GQ Magazine

Marvel

And it sounds cool as hell.

In a bit of a swerve that no one was really expecting, The New Mutantsthe next X-Men movie, expected to premiere in April of next yearisn't going to be a typical action blockbuster. Instead, it's going to be a horror film.

The news comes from Entertainment Weekly, who recently spoke to director Josh Boone about the film. Boone describes it as "a full-fledged horror movie set in the X-Men universe" with "no costumes" and "no supervillains." Instead, it will focus on five young mutants trapped in a facility, trying to literally survive their own newly developed powers.

This actually makes a lot of sense when compared to the comics the movie is based on. The New Mutants was the first X-Men spinoff comic published by Marvel Comics after the runaway success of The Uncanny X-Men, by far its most popular comic. Chris Claremont and Bob McLeod's New Mutants was initially conceived as a way to take the X-Men concept back to basics, focusing on a new set of young outcast mutants at Professor Charles Xavier's school for mutants while the main team of X-Men was doing wild, non-school-related stuff like fighting aliens in space. And for a while, it stayed that waythe cast of New Mutants was largely forbidden from overt superheroics, and its adventures played out kind of like a teen soap.

However, the story that The New Mutants film is heavily implied to be based on takes a bit of a crazy turn. "The Demon Bear Saga," as it was called, featured Dani Moonstar, shunned by her Native American culture and not really fitting in with the New Mutants, hunted by an apparition of a demon bear that killed her parents. It's a dark psychological thriller, weighty with metaphor and rendered in a fashion that hadn't ever been seen before in comics, thanks to the groundbreaking art of Bill Sienkiewicz, which did a lot to give the story its horror vibe.

In talking to EW, Boone seems to really grasp what makes New Mutants tick. He cites his Evangelical upbringing alongside his best friend/New Mutants co-writer Knate Lee for giving him a strong personal connection to the material, which deals with the teen struggle of clashing with the culture you were raised in while coming of age. It's a step beyond the usual and-I'm-a-fan-too posturing that a lot of filmmakers and actors do when promoting comic book films, and an earnest one. After all, Boone made The Fault in Our Stars, so the guy knows earnest. Also teens.

The Next X-Men Spinoff Will Be a Horror Movie – GQ Magazine

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