Josh Boone hopes The New Mutants kicks off a trilogy of X-Men horror films

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

As I'm not overly familiar with Marvel's New Mutants comic series, I wasn't entirely sure what to expect from Josh Boone's upcoming film, and the first trailer for THE NEW MUTANTS definitely didn't fit the X-MEN image I had in my head. Josh Boone had previously said that THE NEW MUTANTS would be "a full-fledged horror movie set within the X-Men universe," and that they were "trying to do something very, very different." Very different indeed, and it may not be the last we see of the X-MEN franchise embracing the horror genre.

While speaking the IGN, Josh Boone said that the concept was brought to Fox as a "trilogy of films," all of which are based on Bill Sienkiewicz and Chris Claremont's run on the series (The New Mutants vol. 1 #18–31, 35–38). "It's very much when New Mutants became dark and surreal and more horror driven," Boone said. "We were incredibly inspired by the Demon Bear story which is probably the best, well-known New Mutants story. We also drew on movies like One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Stephen King stuff, and even Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors." Assuming THE NEW MUTANTS is a success, Boone may get the chance to explore more horror-infused entries in the X-MEN franchise with his NEW MUTANTS trilogy.

These are all going to be horror movies, and they're all be their own distinct kind of horror movies. This is certainly the ‘rubber-reality’ supernatural horror movie. The next one will be a completely different kind of horror movie. Our take was just go examine the horror genre through comic book movies and make each one its own distinct sort of horror film. Drawing from the big events that we love in the comics.

With DEADPOOL and LOGAN, 20th Century Fox has shown a williness to step outside the typical comic-book movie, and it certainly looks as though THE NEW MUTANTS will serve as another departure from the norm. "Fox made Deadpool and Logan and they were sort of so tonally different they felt embolden to let us go make it different, and make have its own distinct tone and identity," Boone said. "I think of the mainline X-Men movies more as grand operative science-fiction films. This is much more of a performance-driven horror film." THE NEW MUTANTS director wouldn't reveal much more about the film, other than to say it takes place in the present day and that it is "connected to and a part of the X-Men universe, and will continue to be a part of the X-Men universe."

THE NEW MUTANTS will hit theaters on April 13, 2018.