20th Century Fox seems to be tossing out the playbook and embracing new things with their comic book properties. They let Ryan Reynolds and co. go R-rated for “Deadpool,” and were rewarded with a massive box office success. That paved the way for this year’s moody and affecting “Logan,” also R-rated, but a picture that played more like a character drama than a superhero film. Now, for “X-Men: The New Mutants,” it looks like the studio is willing to let director Josh Boone try something unexpected.
Speaking with EW, the filmmaker revealed the surprising genre shift the upcoming ‘X-Men’ will take. “We are making a full-fledged horror movie set within the X-Men universe,” Boone said. “There are no costumes. There are no supervillains. We’re trying to do something very, very different.”
READ MORE: ‘Deadpool 2’ & Two More ‘X-Men’ Films Dated For 2018
Horror has been something the director has been trying to do for a while now (he’s got a couple of Stephen King adaptations on his plate), but the idea of bringing that flavor into the world of mutants is pretty inspired. It also has personal ties to the director’s own life.
“I was raised by very religious parents,” Boone said. “They were Evangelical Southern Baptists and they believed in the rapture; they believed the devil was real; they believed in demons. [Screenwriter] Knate [Lee] grew up in a similar environment and our entire lives we sort of hung on to each other as tight as we could. That’s how we got through the craziness we grew up in.”
It’s also intriguing to note that Boone says Fox wants their Marvel spinoff movies each to be as “drastically different” as the last, which in this era of template-driven, blockbuster moviemaking, is a nice thing to hear.
Anya Taylor-Joy and Maisie Williams are set to star, with Variety reporting that Rosario Dawson will be coming aboard as Dr. Cecilia Reyes. “X-Men: The New Mutants” shoots this summer and will open on April 13, 2018.