Fox has finally begun to fill out the cast list for the long-awaited X-Men spin-off ‘New Mutants’. Maisie Williams (Game of Thrones) and Anya Taylor-Joy (Split) have both been cast for leading roles in the upcoming young adult superhero movie which is being directed by Josh Boone. It is set to begin filming this July with a script written by Boone and director/writer Knate Lee.

As with the original X-Men comic created by Chris Claremont and Bob McLeod, New Mutants will focus on the angsty adventures of an extremely diverse group of mutant teenagers, including a Brazilian named Sunspot, a mutant from Kentucky code-named Cannonball, a Russian girl named Magik, a Native American named Danielle Moonstar, and a Scottish girl named Wolfsbane. The film will also feature an alien named Warlock.  

Maisie Williams has been cast to play Wolfsbane, a girl “struggling to reconcile her religious beliefs with her power to turn into a wolf.” Williams currently has a major role on Game of Thrones as Arya Stark as well, a young girl whose house crest portrays a direwolf. She also raises a direwolf on the show, so it seems like a perfect fit for her.

Anya Taylor-Joy has been cast as Magik, a girl who has learned sorcery and relies upon teleportation discs to travel. She is also the sister of Colossus, a mutant who made an appearance in Deadpool alongside Negasonic Teenage Warhead. While Maisie Williams has been a household name since her breakout role on Game of Thrones, Taylor-Joy recently broke out with the 2015 horror movie The Witch. More recently, she starred in M. Night Shyamalan’s Split alongside James McAvoy, who has played a young Professor Charles Xavier in the more recent X-Men movies beginning with X-Men: First Class.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, director Josh Boone actually had his eye on the two female actors for the roles since last year. However, he was only able to sign them on after Fox greenlit the movie earlier this year. Fox has recently proven that as a company, they are more willing to take risks with the X-Men franchise. This is most likely in no small part due to the massive success Logan has enjoyed despite (or more than likely because of) the movie’s hard R rating. Let’s hope Fox does the New Mutants spin-off the justice it deserves. The film is set to arrive in theaters on April 13, 2018.  

So, thoughts on the upcoming movie? Who would you like to see be cast for the remaining available roles? Let us know in the comments section below, and as always, stay tuned to DFTG for all the latest gaming and entertainment news! Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter for our 24/7 news feed!