It’s only a matter of time before the young cast of “Stranger Things” start finding their careers expanding into the world of blockbuster pictures. As we learned yesterday, Millie Bobby Brown auditioned for the role of X-23 in “Logan,” but she didn’t land it. However, it looks like Charlie Heaton will be the first of the young ensemble to make the major league leap.
THR reveals that the actor, who plays Jonathan Byers on the acclaimed Netflix series, has landed a role in “X-Men” spinoff “New Mutants.” He joins Anya Taylor-Joy, Maisie Williams and Rosario Dawson in the picture, directed by Josh Boone, which is being teased as “a full-fledged horror movie” that will follow a group of teenagers who are learning to grapple with their strange powers while being held in a secret facility. Heaton will be playing Sam Guthrie aka Cannonball. Here’s how Wikipedia breaks down his origin story:
Sam Guthrie was born in Cumberland, Kentucky. As a young boy, he attempted to help out his family by working in the coal mine in which his father had worked before he died. One day, Sam finds himself trapped in a collapsing mine shaft. While trying to rescue his fellow worker, Mr. Lewis, a friend of his father’s who had introduced him to the job, Sam unconsciously activates his mutant ability and uses it to save himself and Lewis from the collapsing mine. This incident leads Donald Pierce to find Sam and hire him as a mercenary for the Hellfire Club, to use him in a plot to attack the New Mutants. However, when Pierce orders him to kill the defeated New Mutants, Sam rebels against him. Professor Charles Xavier sees the good qualities inside Sam and, after saving him from Pierce, asks him to join his New Mutants. Cannonball leaves his large farming family in Kentucky to join the team.
Obviously, some or none of this backstory will be used, but it’s a starting off point for those (like me) who have never heard of this character before.
“New Mutants” starts filming this summer, and hits cinemas on April 13, 2018.