Fox's New Mutants Movie Just Took Another Huge Step Forward

It's been almost a year since The New Mutants has been announced at 20th Century Fox, with director Josh Boone at the helm. And surprise surprise, an update has hit the internet that spells good news for the developing project, as Boone and co-writer Knate Lee have announced that a draft of their script has been turned in. Check out the cover photo that heralded the big event, below.

Cover of a certain script @knatelee and I turned in last night to @simondavidkinberg #newmutants second draft

A photo posted by Josh Boone (@joshboonemovies) on Apr 15, 2016 at 7:03am PDT

Josh Boone took to his Instagram profile, with the news that a draft was handed in to producer Simon Kinberg, with that very cover you see in front of you adorning said draft. This is excellent news considering X-Men: Apocalypse will continue to set up the X-Men universe for its later stages, which should provide plenty of potential members for The New Mutants. While this latest update on Boone's hotly anticipated Marvel movie is exciting, it should be tempered with the fact that it's uncertain where the project ranks on the writer / director's current slate.

The director of the previous 20th Century Fox hit, The Fault In Our Stars, has at least three more projects on his docket. Also on Josh Boone's plate is the reboot of Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles, as well as adaptations of two Stephen King works: Revival and The Stand. However, considering only Revival seems to be on the fast track at this moment, there's a good chance that The New Mutants could jump to the head of the line. The studio is obviously going to want to keep the X-Men franchise as fresh as possible, and with another line of stories to tell in the same universe, it'll be that much easier for Fox to stay in the Marvel movie game.

With his comic credibility pretty well established, Josh Boone's invocation of Chris Claremont and Bob McLeod's names on the title page of The New Mutants seems like not only a credit to Claremont and McLeod's creation of the series, but also a possible indication of which line up the writer/director will use in his film. With Boone's childhood lining up with the initial run of the Marvel comic, and X-Men: Days of Future Past's Sunspot being an established member of The New Mutants line-up, we might see Cannonball, Mirage, Karma, and Wolfsbane joining in on the fun. And thanks to X-Men: Apocalypse's period setting, there's a chance that The New Mutants could be set in the 1980's period it was published in.

Josh Boone's future looks pretty bright, and The New Mutants seems like a surefire fast track for the young director. If we were to guess, we'd say that a major announcement on the project's status would more than likely follow X-Men: Apocalypse's potentially record setting box-office debut on May 27th. In the meantime, stay tuned to Cinema Blend, as we'll report any further announcements as they happen.