So, here it is, 2020’s first big surprise, the Marvel movie none of us thought we were actually going to see. The road to The New Mutants has been a long and tedious one, but it’s here now, it’s finally happening, and we get our first glimpse into what the X-Men might look like in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Our first look at the movie from over two years ago was really more of a tone trailer. There was nothing there that revealed the plot, or who the characters were. The Marvel logo implied some superhero connection. The actors were all young up-and-comers, all of whom looked familiar from being here and there – The Witch, Game of Thrones, Stranger Things. But mostly, all we got were some terrifying horror beats, and a deeply disturbing mood.
If you have even a passing familiarity with the comics – or have seen any of the many, many X-Men movies – you’ll know that mutants are individuals who possess unique powers that can be seen as either a blessing or a curse.
In this movie, we meet five of them; teenagers committed to an asylum in order to atone for some past sin (Anya Taylor-Joy’s Illyana Rasputin boasts having killed 18 men, “one by one”). There is a darkness here. A claustrophobia. A sense that someone, or something, is coming to get them. Which runs in stark contrast to the cushy life those X-Men have over at Charles’ mansion.
This new trailer is very different from the last. Where the last was more Stranger Things meets One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, this one takes a more straightforward approach by leaning more into its superhero roots. Given how stripped down the previous trailer made this movie look, I for one wasn’t expecting to see Illyana go full on Magik and manifest the Soulsword. But here we are.
Make no mistake, this still looks very much like a horror movie. But there is a lot more superhero action in this trailer. There is a lot more flash. There is even the implication that a sort of mutant team-up may occur. Hell, it might even be an origin story!
The one thing I can’t figure out is how Marvel is going to shoehorn this into their existing cinematic universe. They don’t have to, but given how long they’ve waited to bring the X-Men into the fold, it would be remarkably odd to have The New Mutants be something that simply exists out-of-continuity and outside canon.
The New Mutants is directed by Josh Boone and stars Anya Taylor-Joy, Maisie Williams, Charlie Heaton, Henry Zaga, and Alice Braga. The movie will be in cinemas on April 3rd.
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