Rosario Dawson Drops Out of New Mutants Talks, Alice Braga Steps In

Russ Burlingame

06/29/2017 05:21 pm EDT

Predators and Queen of the South actress Alice Braga will reportedly join the cast of 20th Century Fox's New Mutants, replacing Rosario Dawson as Dr. Cecilia Reyes.

Dawson, who currently appears in Marvel's Netflix series and previously starred in comic book adaptations Sin City and Josie and the Pussycats, was in talks to take on the role, but a deal never came together.

Variety reports that Braga will join a cast that already includes Anya Taylor-Joy, Maisie Williams, Charlie Heaton, Blue Hunt and Henry Zaga.

Reyes was created during the late '90s era of the comics: the Puerto Rican character was a NYC trauma surgeon, who was outed as a mutant by a government Sentinel program called "Operation: Zero Tolerance." Once she learned that she was a mutant (whose ability is instinctively generating a protective field around her body) , Reyes eventually went on to work as the X-Men's doctor, in the mutant haven of Utopia.

Created by Scott Lobdell and Carlos Pacheco, the character has since become a favorite of Arrow showrunner and X-Men: Gold writer Marc Guggenheim.

The movie version of Reyes would be a bit different than her comic book counterpart: Here, Reyes is a medical doctor who has the ability to generate a protective bio-field around herself. The character assumes a mentor role for the group of fledgling heroes.

New Mutants is gearing up for production this year, and is set to bow in theaters on April 13, 2018. Deadpool 2 will follow that up on June 1.

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