New Mutants Almost Featured An X-Men Character In A Surprising Role (Report)

Disney's The New Mutants is finally hitting theaters this weekend, albeit after hefty delays. This is director Josh Boone's first foray into superhero movies, and the movie has taken some weird turns to finally make it into theaters, but the most surprising thing about it might be the role one recognizable x-men character would have played, according to a new report from Vulture.

Citing various unnamed sources, that report says that the initial 2015 screenplay drafts written by Boone and collaborator Knate Lee failed to deliver the kind of vividly drawn teen drama the filmmaker had pitched to the studio. Boone had said he was drawing inspiration from 80s teen classics like The Breakfast Club, but nothing was clicking.

One of the biggest changes though was the treatment of Storm, a classic character and on-again off-again leader of the X-Men. In New Mutants, Storm was envisioned more as a "sadistic jailer" who enjoyed torturing the kids.

“It felt like the kids were being tortured. If the X-Men are holding [the young mutants] there, it can’t feel different from the mental furniture that audiences bring into the theater knowing that the X-Men are good guys. Storm like that made no sense.”

The past few X-entries have been less than stellar to both fans and critics. Last summer's Dark Phoenix was considered joyless and abysmal, and had a calculated loss of about $133 million, when factoring expenses and revenues. Apocalypse, while a financial blockbuster, failed to hit with critics and has a 47% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Boone has yet to confirm or deny the radical change. It's far from the first time something like this has happened in the X-Men franchise however. Both Deadpool and the Blob had completely different origins and mannerisms from Wolverine: Origins, Angel in Apocalypse was a cage fighter, and of course the whole timeline with Havoc.

In our review for The New Mutants we say "it's not the worst entry into the X-Men franchise you've ever seen, but it's not likely to be a very memorable one, either." You can read the full review here.