MUTANT REHAB

AFTER YEARS STUCK IN MOVIE PURGATORY, THE NEW MUTANTS IS FINALLY SEEING THE LIGHT OF DAY. WE ASK DIRECTOR JOSH BOONE WHY IT TOOK SO LONG

- DAVID GROVE

THE NEW MUTANTS, the long-awaited film adaptation of the Marvel Comics series, features five super-powered teenagers who are so dangerous that even Professor X is scared of them. Instead of training at Professor Charles Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, these mutants – Cannonball, Magik, Mirage, Sunspot and Wolfsbane – are being held against their will in a secret facility, where they attempt to learn how to control their terrifying powers.

It’s a bleak setting, and director Josh Boone describes The New Mutants as a horror film that’s buried within a superhero film. “The mutants in the film aren’t superheroes,” says Boone, who co-wrote the script. “They’re teenagers who are forced to live inside this facility because they’re too dangerous to live and study at the X-Mansion. They view their powers as a curse, not a gift.

“Because these characters are teenagers, not superheroes, there was no need to idealise the superhero elements,” he continues. “It would be very awkward if Captain America or Spider-Man were to arrive at this facility and join these mutants, who aren’t at all ready to help save the world. Before these teenage mutants can even think about being part of a superhero group and saving other people, they must first save themselves.”