After many years of delays, the latest film set in the X-Men universe is finally on its way this year.

The New Mutants focuses on five young mutants who are just starting to discover their abilities, which include being able to shape-shift into a wolf and the ability to manipulate solar energy.

But the mutants are being held against their will in a secret facility and it soon becomes clear that taking care of them might not be the hospital's main priority.

20th Century Fox

Many fans have questioned how closely The New Mutants will tie into the X-Men series of films and director Josh Boone has the answers.

Speaking to Digital Spy and other press on a set visit in 2017 when the movie was shooting, he revealed that his movie is "absolutely an X-Men movie" – but with some vital differences.

"There's references and things that happen that are part of the greater whole, but we very much wanted it to tonally and aesthetically stand on its own," Boone said.



"It's very grounded and very credible and because we shot it in a real location, it just will never look like a typical comic book movie where there's a lot of green screen, and everything sort of looks like there's a painted sheen of CGI across it.

20th Century Fox

"We're really going for something not an indie movie, but a little more rough around the edges like that."

Boone also revealed that he is hoping for some kind of official connection to be made between The New Mutants and the other X-Men movies (although that may have been scuppered by that Disney / Fox deal), but that the tonal differences between the films may make this difficult.

"I'm sure in some world in the future, these things will all connect, but these movies will stand on their own.

"If you put all the X-Men kids from a PG-13 X-Men movie into Deadpool, it'd be a weird match. This is sort of the same way. I'd be interested to see how they were able to do that because the tone of ours is so different."

20th Century Fox

The new mutants of the title are played by Game of Thrones' Maisie Williams, Anya Taylor-Joy, Stranger Things star Charlie Heaton, Blu Hunt and Henry Zaga.

Williams revealed that she was so nervous about her role in the film that she decided to seek advice from her Thrones co-star and close friend Sophie Turner, who played a young Jean Grey in X-Men: Apocalypse.

"She was like, 'It just feels huge, it feels unlike anything' and I'm like, 'But we're on Game of Thrones and that's a really big TV show'. She's like, 'It's nothing like it in the movie world'. And it's true," Williams said.



"I don't feel like I've ever done anything this big, and everyone's like, 'Are you kidding?'. It just feels different. It feels like there's this foreshadowing of, 'We're going to make this huge, really special'. That's exciting, but it's also something I haven't felt before."

The New Mutants is released in the US on April 3 and in the UK on April 8.

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