Charlie Heaton of Stranger Things to be New Mutants’ Cannonball

Last Updated on July 31, 2021

Although director Josh Boone's THE FAULT IN OUR STARS cast member Nat Wolff had been rumored to be in the running to play the mutant Cannonball in Boone's X-MEN spin-off NEW MUTANTS, it looks like the role will instead be going to Charlie Heaton of Stranger Things and SHUT IN.

Heaton is in negotiations to play Cannonball, a.k.a. Sam Guthrie, "a mutant who uses the ability to fly at jet speeds while encased in an impenetrable force field." Over the years, Cannonball has been a member of the superhero teams New Mutants, X-Force, and X-Men.

If Heaton's deal closes, he will be joining a cast that so far includes Anya Taylor-Joy as Illyana Rasputin, a.k.a. Magik, "a girl who has learned sorcery and uses teleportation discs to travel"; Maisie Williams as Rahne Sinclair, a.k.a. Wolfsbane, "a girl struggling to reconcile her religious beliefs with her power to turn into a wolf"; and Rosario Dawson as Dr. Cecilia Reyes, "a medical doctor who has the ability to generate a protective bio-field around herself." Reyes will be serving as a mentor to these new mutants.

The characters sound like the sort you would see in the average X-MEN movie, but Boone is taking a bit of a different approach to the concepts with this spin-off. He has described NEW MUTANTS as a "full-fledged horror movie", John Hughes meets Stephen King, and has said that there will be no costumes on display and no supervillains. We're pretty sure there will be a giant, demonic bear, though.

NEW MUTANTS will center on 

a diverse cadre of teens learning to cope with their superpowers. These new mutants find themselves held in a secret facility against their will and must battle the dangers of their powers, as well as the sins of their past.

Scheduled for an April 13, 2018 release, NEW MUTANTS will begin filming next month.

Dawson