Josh Boone To Direct X-Men Spin-Off, THE NEW MUTANTS, For Fox

Time will tell what the future holds for Professor Charles Xavier and his team of heroic mutants when Bryan Singer’s X-Men: Apocalypse arrives next year in May. In the meantime, Fox is reportedly devloping a spin-off from their current franchise titled The New Mutants, and has officially closed a deal with The Faults In Our Stars helmer Josh Boone to write and direct.

In 1982, Chris Claremont and Bob McLeod created the first team of which there are three, with the other two from seperate creative groups in 2003 and 2009, continuing the saga centered on the stories of young mutants trained at Xavier’s School For The Gifted. The project is yet another add-on to the studio’s own handling of the live-action translation of the X-Men franchise since Singer boarded X-Men in 2000, as at least a few more titles are active in some capacity at Fox, including the current production of Deadpool and earlier mentions of Jeff Wadlow’s attachment to X-Force – the later iteration of the Claremont/McLeod New Mutants installation.

At least one rumor as of last month was that X-Men: Apocalypse would cap-off Singer’s end of the X-Men cinematic universe at Fox while franchise lead actor Hugh Jackman sends off his iconic role as character Logan in a third Wolverine film under James Mangold for 2017. Bearing all this in mind, this could bring some validity to a new volume of stories for the X-Men saga. Seven films in under different directors, the current franchise has done well for itself in contributing to well over a decade of superhero movie as we’ve moved over into a new age of fandom with Marvel’s MCU and Warner Bros. with their DC Comics slate among others, and with plenty more stories in the cards, including a live-action return to television in the works, clearly Fox has no intentions of letting go of what so far works.

Boone, who has a few other projects on his plate for the next few years, will co-write The New Mutants with Knate Gwaltney with returning X-Men franchise producers Simon Kinberg will produce with Lauren Shuler Donner also on board. Two other Marvel/X-Men properties are also on deck, with Donner helping spearhead a live-action Gambit film while director Tim Miller currently rolls cameras for actor Ryan Renyolds as Deadpool for February 12, 2016.

Singer recently announced the upcoming release of X-Men: Days Of Future Past – THE ROGUE CUT, which will release on July 14 on Digital HD marking the 15-year anniversary of the theatrical release of the film that started it all, X-Men.

Stay tuned for more info.

H/T: Deadline