‘X-Men’ Spinoff ‘New Mutants’ Lands ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ Scribes
It looks like Fox’s long-developing New Mutants project is picking up a bit of steam, as the studio has hired The Fault in Our Stars duo Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber to write the screenplay for the X-Men spinoff. The pair will reunite with director Josh Boone for the film, which will follow a younger group of mutant outcasts as they cope with newfound powers.
Perhaps it’s no coincidence that THR’s report comes just one day after we learned that Doug Liman is no longer attached to direct Channing Tatum’s Gambit movie, which has suffered repeated delays over the last year. Although producer Simon Kinberg said they hoped to begin shooting early next year, it seems that Fox is focusing their efforts on an X-Men spinoff that might be a bit more promising.
Neustadter and Weber, who also wrote The Spectacular Now, will work closely with Boone to develop New Mutants. Chris Claremont and Bob McLeod created the series, which debuted in the ’80s and was the first X-Men comic-book spinoff. Back in May, Boone shared a series of photos on Instagram that seemingly revealed which characters we’ll see in the New Mutants movie, including Wolfsbane, Magik, Mirage and Cannonball.
According to a widely-circulated report from March, Game of Thrones star Maisie Williams and The Witch’s Anya Taylor-Joy were in early talks to join the lineup (Williams all-but-confirmed this in a later interview), though it’s unclear if they remain involved. That same report suggested that Alexandra Shipp’s young Storm and James McAvoy’s Professor Xavier would also appear in the film. Kinberg confirmed the latter in an interview, where he also said the project could begin filming in 2017 (man, he’s really committed to things happening in 2017).
New Mutants does not yet have a release date.