So far, 2016 has been a fantastic (pun intended) year for 20th Century Fox. Deadpool is riding the wave of its incredible fourth-wall-breaking success, and Bryan Singer’s highly anticipated X-Men: Apocalypse is set to open on May 27.

Speaking with IGN, producer Simon Kinberg opened up about another of their upcoming comic-book movie projects, The New Mutants, explaining where they were in terms of production (there's no release date planned yet) and offering some intriguing tidbits about the movie featuring a team of young mutants training to become X-Men.

Just last year, it was revealed that The Fault in Our Stars director Josh Boone had been tapped to helm and co-write the screenplay for the superhero film based on Marvel’s New Mutants comics, an offshoot of the X-Men. So, where are they at with the movie? Well, Boone is still hammering away at writing the story.

“Josh Boone and his writing partner are working on the script. They're doing a really nice job of it, and it's a really cool one, because in many ways, like Deadpool was so different from the mainline X-Men movies, New Mutants… It’s maybe not as different as Deadpool, but it has its own unique, original voice to it. That's the fun for me, working in the X-Men universe, creating these sort of standalone movies that have a different vibe to them. And New Mutants has more of a YA [Young Adult] vibe to it.”

Let me guess. As in The Hunger Games and The Divergent Series? Whether we like it or not, it's been a thing for a while now. Kinberg then talked about all the amazing X-Men and New Mutant characters we might get to see in the movie.

“There's a very deep bench. There's a long, long list of names, and I'll tell you some of the names on that list I don't even know. That's how deep it goes.”

Some of those New Mutants include Cannonball, Sunspot, Magma, Mirage, Wolfsbane, Cypher, Warlock (who is actually a cybernetic alien), Warpath (played by Booboo Stewart in X-Men: Days of Future Past) and Illyana Nikolievna Rasputin, aka Magik, aka Colossus’ sister. Magik’s mutant power is the ability to teleport (a bit like Nightcrawler) and she's also a sorceress.

Leading and training the team of mutant youngsters in the Marvel Comics are Professor X, Magneto and Cable (who is rumored to make his big screen debut in the Deadpool sequel). So, does that mean that we’ll get to see characters that have already been introduced in the X-Men Cinematic Universe? Here's what Kinberg said.

“Traditionally, the New Mutants have some characters that cross over from the mainline X-Men movies. As we are going, I would say it's likely that you will see some familiar faces.”

One of those familiar faces could turn out to be Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand) who was already introduced as a New Mutant in Deadpool. Another popular X-Men character who could pop up in the movie is Kitty Pryde/Sprite (Ellen Page) who was also a member of the New Mutants at one point. She was last seen in X-Men: Days of Future Past.

Oh, and before I forget, there's also Jennifer Lawrence who just said she's "dying to come back" for more X-Men films. Why not have a slightly older Mystique train the young superhero team? I'm assuming the movie takes place in the present.

As for specific New Mutants characters, when IGN asked about Magik, Kinberg seemed to hint that the beloved character may make her way into The New Mutants as he apparently said, with a grin on his face:

“It’s a great role… It would be a great role to cast.”

What do you think? Which Marvel mutant would you like to see make up the new team in Fox's The New Mutants?

(via IGN)