Stranger Things star Charlie Heaton is in talks to join the cast of New Mutants

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Heaton - who played social pariah Jonathan Byers on Netflix's Stranger Things - is in negotiations to join the X-Men spinoff film as Sam Guthrie, the mutant also known as Cannonball.

Cannonball has the mutant ability to create a jet-like explosion that propels him through the air. His ability also comes with a forcefield that makes him nearly invulnerable while he's in motion. Or, as the Kentucky native Sam himself would say, "he's nigh invulnerable when he's blastin'."

Heaton will be joining The Witch and Split star Anya Taylor-Joy and Game of Thrones' Maisie Williams as part of the team of young mutants.

Taylor-Joy is set to play Illyana Rasputin, the mutant known as Magik. Magik has teleportation powers and is a master of mystic arts.

Williams is playing Rahne Sinclair, also known as Wolfsbane. Wolfsbane is a mutant with the ability to transform into a wolf of a werewolf-like form.

Rosario Dawson is also set to play Dr. Cecillia Reyes, a mutant with a protective forcefield.

New Mutants will also feature the Native American mutant Dani Moonstar, also known as Mirage, and Fox is reportedly eying two potential candidates to play the role. The film will also include Sunspot, who is reportedly being played by Henry Zaga , and the alien called Warlock.

Fox is hoping that New Mutants will put a different spin on the superhero movie genre, much like they did with Logan and Deadpool. Where Logan was a kind of modern western and Deadpool injected the genre with raunchy comedy, New Mutants looks to blend young adult conventions with the teen movies and horror flicks of the 1980s, the era when the New Mutants were created.

The plot of New Mutants reportedly finds the young mutants trapped in a secret installation where they are forced to battle threats physical and mental.

New Mutants is being directed by Josh Boone, from a script he co-wrote with Knate Lee. Filming is said to begin in Boston in July.

The New Mutants were the first ever X-Men spinoff comic book series. Created by Chris Claremont and Bob McLeod in 1982, the series saw Professor X recruiting a new class of young mutants for his school for gifted youngsters at a time when he believed the X-Men were dead.

New Mutants opens in theaters April 13, 2018.

More X-Men Movies: Logan Behind-The-Scenes Photos / Rosario Dawson in Talks for X-Men: New Mutants / Deadpool 2 Casts Jack Kesy In Villain Role / X-Men: Could Anna Paquin's Rogue Cameo In The Gifted?