The New Mutants -- news, rumors, opix, etc;

I saw a still of the possible Lockheed on EW.com's trailer breakdown, and it's hard to tell what we're seeing. You can see what looks like something small, and either blue or purple flying around the big black cloud, which is apparently the Demon Bear, and zapping it or shooting it with something.

 

Yes, there's a video clip in the article I linked to, and it's quite unclear. It's just speculation at this point. But considering how authentically they seem to be portraying the New Mutants' powers and backstories (judging from the glimpses in the trailer), and Illyana's in particular, it's not an unreasonable speculation.

Well, they are getting one thing wrong, but it's something I gather recent comics have gotten wrong too -- namely that Sunspot/Roberto was originally supposed to be biracial.

 

Cecilia Reyes is also black in the comics but not here. It’s genuinely bizarre that this film has two characters in its cast who should be black but has racebent both of them.

 

In the very first pic of the cast Anya has what looks to be a cloth Lockheed on her arm, so I wouldn't be surprised if he shows up.

 

Is Kittie in the movie? I always thought Lockheed's origin was connected to her more than the New Mutants in general, no?

 

Traditionally, he's an alien who followed Kitty home from the Brood saga. But I could definitely see 'friendly imp from Limbo' as an alternate origin story with potential if they want to tie him directly to Ilyana.

 

Originally, yes, but Kitty and Illyana were roommates during Kitty's time with the New Mutants, and so Lockheed became close to Illyana as well (as discussed here). And since the X-Men movies never used Lockheed in connection with Kitty, it's understandable that they'd introduce him as being connected with Magik instead. (Kind of like how the MCU Daredevil introduced Kingpin without giving him a history as a Spider-Man antagonist, since MCU Spidey didn't exist yet. Or how Supergirl used Mon-El but expunged his history with Superman in order to simplify his backstory.)

 

The comics have maintained that Sunspot was of African and Brazilian descent.

 

But is looking less and less African in the comics.

 

It's nothing that hasn't happened before. Being biracial (that is, not definitively black to the editors), Sunspot occasionally gets whitewashed for awhile and then goes back to being darker-skinned once a big enough stink of it's made.

 

Well, apparently the newsletter of D23, "The Official Disney Fan Club," is calling New Mutants "a seriously electrifying new addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe." The comics news sites are already reporting this as "proof" that the movie is set in the MCU continuity, but I'm still not entirely convinced, since sometimes these promotional blurbs use terms differently than fans do, or overstate or missstate things. Still, if it is true, we'll probably get confirmation from somebody before long. But it's hard to see how it reconciles with the director's statement that it's his original cut from when the film was meant to be part of the Fox X-Men universe.

 

Yeah, I agree that this is far from firm proof simply because of use language. I imagine when we're closer to the actual release and the production team starts doing serious press for it, we might get a real answer. Maybe.

 

I can't see the movie as having been intended to be in the MCU at all. It was made when the X-Men were their own universe. That said if the movie really doesn't connect to the Fox X-Men universe in any significant way beyond commonly accepted mythology, the MCU could probably incorporate it easily.

 

I don't think anyone has said it was possible that the film was originally intended to be in the MCU, only the suggestion that it could be edited in such a way that it could be included now (with or without new dialogue).

 

Yes, exactly. The film was delayed for reshoots, which apparently were never done, and there were rumors recently after the Disney merger that it might finally have reshoots to connect it to the MCU; but then the director made a social media post that seemed to say it would still be his original edit from way back in 2017. Which seems like it would make it difficult to integrate into the MCU.

 

It's pretty hard to imagine anyone at Marvel Ent. would want or allow this to be a MCU movie. Essentially, having their direction going forward (in regards to Mutants) be dictated by a movie made years earlier for a different studio? C'mon.

 

My thinking is similar -- it's the same reason the developers of Universal's Dark Universe didn't follow through on the option of retroactively folding Dracula Unchained into their planned continuity.

But on the other hand, it looks like it's a fairly self-contained story, limited to one setting and focusing on relatively peripheral mutant characters, avoiding any of the big names like Xavier or Wolverine or Magneto or the like. And it appears that it's depicting the characters in a pretty comics-accurate way, rather than introducing any idiosyncratic alternative takes on them (except for turning Cecilia Reyes evil, apparently). So it's conceivable, I think, that it might have sufficiently little overlap with any mutant characters and concepts the MCU is developing that it doesn't really restrict or contradict anything they're doing. I don't expect it to be compatible, but it might not be out of the question.

 

Probably a marketing thing. Lord knows they're going want to hype this as a new Marvel movie, not a lame-duck leftover from Fox's X-MEN series.

Doesn't mean it's going to be literally tied into the larger MCU. Just that it's going to be sent out into the world under the Marvel banner.

 

Just change MCU to MCM and you're set. Scarlet Witch and Dr Strange could make it so that everything is part of the MCU. All the different Fox and Sony movies could easily fit into one big multiverse. Heck, even Elektra and the Fantastic Four movie from the 90s. All 4 Punishers.

 

Joker proved that fans will watch an out-of-continuity comic book movie if it's good. If New Mutants is huge, perhaps they'll drag some of its characters and backstory into the MCU. Or perhaps not, who knows?