Fox CEO Talks NEW MUTANTS' Tone and Potential Wolverine Recasting
The X-Men franchise has been going for a whopping 17 years so far, and with several more films in development, there are no signs of slowing down anytime soon. The next installment is New Mutants, a horror story that unites a group of teenagers with mutant abilities. This week, we have some new details on this film’s approach, as well as the cinematic future of the franchise’s most popular face.
In an interview with Variety, 20th Century Fox CEO Stacey Snider comments on the studio’s future plans for the X-Men saga. She confirms that they intend to “vigorously” explore the property, but each film will have its own unique tone and personality. New Mutants is no different. “New Mutants is about these teenagers who are just coming into their powers,” Snider says. “It’s like watching mutants go through adolescence and they have no impulse control, so they’re dangerous. The only solution is to put them in a Breakfast Club detention/Cuckoo’s Nest institutional setting. It protects the people on the outside, but it’s strange and combustible inside. The genre is like a haunted-house movie with a bunch of hormonal teenagers. We haven’t seen a superhero movie whose genre is more like The Shining than ‘we’re teenagers let’s save the world.'” This is definitely a unique way to approach the comic book movie genre, and it only clarifies the film’s horror influences.
New Mutants introduces new faces to the franchise shortly after the exit of Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, whose story concluded in this year’s Logan. After that film, fans have wondered what will happen with the character next. Will he be recast for future films, or will he be left alone? When asked about the idea of the former, Snider simply says, “Anything’s possible.” She goes on to say that Logan should “absolutely” be a contender at the Academy Awards.
Personally, I’m not crazy about the idea of recasting Wolverine anytime soon. The character’s story ended so perfectly in Logan, and bringing him back in the foreseeable future kind of lessens the impact of it. Whenever a full-fledged X-Men reboot happens – whether at Fox or at Marvel Studios – have at it. But as long as this current series is going, keep Wolverine in the ground and focus on new characters, such as Deadpool, Cable, and X-23.
Stay tuned for more X-Men news as we have it.
New Mutants is scheduled to hit theaters on April 13th, 2018. The 11th installment of the X-Men franchise stars Anya Taylor-Joy, Maisie Williams, Henry Zaga, Charlie Heaton, Blu Hunt, and Alice Braga. Josh Boone directs from a script that he co-wrote with Knate Gwaltney.
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