WE NEED TO SHOUT ABOUT THE NEW MUTANTS TRAILER. If you’re not a diehard X-Men fan like myself, you may be wondering, “What’s wrong with the old mutants we have already?” or “Where’s Wolverine?” The answers that I give you as a lifelong X-devotee that has grown tired of seeing movies about all the old dudes is this: forget Wolverine, we need the New Mutants right now!!!

Yes, three exclamation points. Any less would be disrespectful to the truly terrifying (and obviously joy-inducing) trailer that just dropped. Directed by Josh Boone (The Fault in Our Stars), 2018’s The New Mutants is the first feature film adaptation of the very, very first X-Men spinoff comic. Launched in early 1983, Chris Claremont and Bob McLeod’s New Mutants comic took the franchise back to its teenage angst roots. By that point in X-continuity, the flagship Uncanny X-Men comic starred adults (or young adults) that were total superheroes. The series had lost touch with its origins as a comic starring the strangest teens of all! This new series, New Mutants, returned to familiar territory with a new quintet of teenage mutants ready to fight off evil-doers and the dangers of growing up.

And then the derisively nicknamed X-Babies grew up.

In 1984, an avant-garde comic artist named Bill Sienkiewicz took over art duties and, while working with writer Chris Claremont, put the kids through the wringer. The teen soap opera became a truly terrifying horror comic, with Sienkiewicz’s ink-strewn, surrealistic artwork making every issue more and more horrific. For an entire generation of comic readers, Sienkiewicz’s dark art stands right alongside the work of Stephen King and John Carpenter in the ’80s horror hall-of-fame. And now, all that work is a damn movie. The first trailer for The New Mutants is right in line with the tone of the Claremont and Sienkiewicz comics, and features so many shout outs to some of the greatest X-Men comics of all time. LET’S DIVE IN.

Dani Moonstar Blu Hunt plays the film’s protagonist Dani Moonstar, in the comics a mutant of Cheyenne ancestry. Her mutant ability is to manifest either the greatest fear or the greatest desire of whoever she encounters, a power that she eventually was able to manifest as a psychic bow and arrow (the ’90s were an extreme time). But this is Dani as a teenager, so odds are her powers are wild and untamed (kinda like the rattlesnake alluded to in the voiceover). My guess is that whatever nefarious organization has the mutants hostage is trying to harvest and weaponize Dani’s fear powers, thus turning the hospital into a haunted house.

Illyana Rasputin Fresh off The VVitch comes horror vet Anya Taylor-Joy, perfectly cast in this film as the spell-casting, quasi-demonic antihero Magik. Taylor-Joy is perfect in this role, rocking Illyana’s severe bangs flawlessly. She looks like a Sienkiewicz illustration come to life! In the comics, her power involves teleportation via stepping disks that open portals to and from the hell dimension Limbo. We don’t get a look at that power or Limbo in the trailer, although the general vibe of the footage is decidedly hellish.

Roberto da Costa We get very little of Henry Zaga’s Roberto da Costa in the trailer, which is a shame because Sunspot is rad as hell. A Brazilian boy millionaire and would-be football star, Bobby’s dreams were dashed when his solar-powered super strength activated during a game. We don’t see Sunspot use his powers in the trailer, although we do get a brief flash of him standing alongside his BFF Sam Guthrie.

Rahne Sinclair Game of Thrones‘ Maisie Williams plays the hyper religious and devout Catholic Rahne Sinclair, a mutant that’s basically a werewolf. Rahne can transform herself into a wolf, or a more monstrous in-between creature, at will. Not surprisingly, that power didn’t go over well with her ultra Catholic peers, causing her to be ostracized and abused by those around her. She’s timid and shy in the comics, and that’s the feeling we get from Williams’ body language in her flashes on screen.

Sam Guthrie Grade-A good guy and all-around All-American Sam Guthrie is played by Stranger Things‘ Charlie Heaton, who’s sporting a broken arm in this trailer–an injury that he definitely got while not using his power because Cannonball is nigh-invulnerable while blastin’. In the comics, Kentucky-born Sam is co-leader of the New Mutants and possesses a bio-energy propulsion field that propels him through the air like, well, a cannonball.

Dr. Cecilia Reyes Alice Braga plays Dr. Reyes, a character that actually comes across as the film’s villain (or at least one of the henchmen) in the trailer. She’s experimenting on Dani and is seemingly in charge of the asylum where the mutants are being held hostage. This is a very far cry from the Dr. Reyes of the comics, a no-nonsense doctor that puts her career far ahead of super-heroics and is a mutant herself, gifted with the power to generate forcefields. The movie Reyes doesn’t have that power, it looks like, considering the claw marks on her face. Those claw marks are a big Easter egg, by the way, as the actual villain of the film is a supernatural entity known as the Demon Bear. It looks like Reyes runs afoul of that spiritual bear at some point!

Snowfall A lot of the action in the “Demon Bear Saga” (originally published in New Mutants #18-20) takes place in the snow, which you can clearly see on the cover for New Mutants #18. It looks like the movie’s gonna take plenty of visual cues from the comics, judging by this one image.

WTF?? Seriously, no clue what the F this guy is, why he’s there, or who he’s supposed to be. He’s upsetting, and I do not like him. Go away!

Branded As A Wolf This right here is a fascinating touch for Wolfsbane. We see Rahne from behind in the bathroom, and there’s a “W” branded on her shoulderblade. That’s a truly tragic way of getting across her backstory, one filled with persecution and abuse at the hands of the people she trusted. In the comics, Rahne struggled with the mental scars from her upbringing, and it looks like the movie Rahne has a physical reminder of that trauma. Ugh, my heart breaks even more for her!

A LOCKHEED PLUSH?! On a much lighter note: Illyana has a Lockheed plush?! To break that down, in a sequence of events, it looks like all the New Mutants encounter their own personalized hell-visions. Illyana and Sam enter what looks like baby Illyana’s bedroom (also knowing Illyana’s complicated comic book history, baby Illyana is herself pretty much a separate character, so this is an Easter egg with an Easter egg). That kid is clutching a purple dragon plush toy, no doubt a shout out to the purple dragon/alien Lockheed. In the comics, Lockheed was the sidekick of Illyana’s BFF Kitty Pryde (you know, Ellen Page). Still, Lockheed and Magik were close, so close that Illyana’s ’90s action figure came with a Lockheed figure. Now the two are linked on the big screen! My question: where can we buy one of those plush toys?!

Into The Coal Mines! Here’s a flash of Sam’s personal hell, which is a coal mine. In the comics, Sam was the son of a coal-miner and was himself drafted into the work when he was still a teenager. His mutant power (which also includes a protective propulsion field) kicked in during a coal mine cave-in, propelling him to safety as the tragedy killed everyone around him. It looks like this is also movie Sam’s greatest fear, one that he’ll have to come face to face with. We also see what is most likely the start of this sequence in the trailer, when Sam sees a washing machine erupt into flames when a hand slaps against the glass. I initially thought that was the solar-powered Sunspot’s hand, but it’s more likely that the combustion is from the coal mine collapse, signaling Sam to step inside and descend into his nightmare.

Demon Bear Charm We don’t see the Demon Bear once in the trailer, although we do see claw marks on Dr. Reyes’ face. We do, however, see a bear charm on Dani’s necklace. That’s obviously a shout out to the Demon Bear, if not a charm for the bear itself. That’s a fashion statement that’s potentially a major plot point!