‘New Mutants’ Artist Shares BTS Photo With Film’s Cast

The first trailer for New Mutants dropped on Friday, and, while fans have been surprised by the film’s horror turn, there’s one person who is proud of how the upcoming film looks.

Comic book artist Bill Sienkiewicz, who illustrated New Mutants comics in the 1980s, took to Facebook on Friday to share a behind-the-scenes photo of the film’s cast along with director Josh Boone and declared himself to be a “proud papa” when it comes to the film, saying that even co-creator Chris Claremont was pleased. You can check out his post below.

When it comes to the film, Sienkiewicz has a lot to be proud of. Boone told IGN that when they pitched the idea of New Mutants to FOX they specifically based it on Sienkiewicz’s run with Chris Claremont in addition to some specific horror film classics.

“Our whole pitch for this series was based on Bill Sienkiewicz run with Chris Claremont [The New Mutants vol. 1 #18–31, 35–38], so it’s very much when New Mutants became dark and surreal and more horror driven,” Boone said. “We were incredibly inspired by the Demon Bear story which is probably the best, well-known New Mutants story. We also drew on movies like One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Stephen King stuff, and even Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors.”

In the New Mutants trailer fans got their first look at Magik (Anya Taylor-Joy), Wolfsbane (Maisie Williams), Cannonball (Charlie Heaton), Sunspot (Henry Zaga), Mirage (Blu Hunt), and Dr. Cecilia Reyes (Alice Braga) and while many were excited to see the beloved characters finally gracing the big screen there were others who were concerned. The film has been described as “a haunted house movie with horny teenagers.” But “proud papa” Sienkiewicz isn’t going to tolerate negativity about the film. He said in his post that anyone who had negative things to say had to go through him.

“The cast is incredible,” he wrote. “They ARE the New Mutants. Period. End of story. Anyone foolish enough to say nays will have to go through me.”

Fans can see for themselves — and hopefully be pleased enough to not have to go through Sienkiewicz — when New Mutants hits theaters on April 13, 2018.