'X-Men' Has Seen the Future: Is It 'New Mutants' Filming In May?

This past summer’s X-Men: Apocalypse underperformed at the box office, earning approximately $200 million less globally than its 2014 predecessor X-Men: Days of Future Past. At the same time, stars Jennifer Lawrence, James McAvoy, and Michael Fassbender have fulfilled their current contracts, and Hugh Jackman has vowed to hang up his adamantium claws after this coming March’s Logan. What, therefore, is Fox to do with its profitable Marvel property? According to a new report, they’ve decided on a youth movement kicking into gear next month.

Related: Where Do the X-Men Go Post-‘Apocalypse’? A Look at Potential Future Plots

Last May, Fox signed The Fault in Our Stars director Josh Boone to spearhead a big-screen version of New Mutants, a Marvel title involving a young cast of superpowered mutants guided by X-Men leader Professor Xavier. Now, per Collider, a story in Le Journal de Montreal indicates that set construction will begin for a new X-Men film at MELS Studio in the Canadian city in January, followed by principal photography starting in May. When Den of Geek tweeted its write-up of this news item, Boone himself retweeted it, with a teasing question that seems to suggest the project in question is the one he’s overseeing.

Collider reports that New Mutants will feature the characters Wolfsbane, Magik, Sunspot, Danielle Moonstar, Mirage, and Cannonball, and will boast the same sort of young-adult tone that Boone previously crafted for The Fault in Our Stars. Since Fox hasn’t even confirmed that New Mutants is about to begin production, there’s no official release date for the film — although the studio has an “Untitled Marvel/Fox Film” currently on the calendar for a March 2, 2018 debut, so that might be a reasonable guess.

‘Logan’: Watch a trailer: