‘The New Mutants’ Movie Poster Released

The first, fearsome poster of X-Men movies spinoff The New Mutants has arrived.

The poster was released on Tuesday morning with the message “The only thing you have to fear… is yourself.”

Take a look below.

The poster shows the film’s five lead characters trapped and screaming. Those leads are Mirage (Blue Hunt), Sunspot (Henry Zaga), Cannonball (Charlie Heaton), Magik (Anya Taylor-Joy), and Wolfsbane (Maisie Williams). Wolfbane’s mutant werewolf form can be glimpsed specifically in the bottom right-hand corner of the poster.

The New Mutants is inspired by the classic story “The Demon Bear Saga” and is said to be the first installment in an X-Men movies horror trilogy according to director Josh Boone.

“We brought it to FOX as a trilogy of films, really all based on that long run by [Bill] Sienkiewicz, and kind of incorporates some stuff from later issues in the ’80s,” said Boone. “These are all going to be horror movies, and they’re all be their own distinct kind of horror movies. This is certainly the ‘rubber-reality’ supernatural horror movie. The next one will be a completely different kind of horror movie.”

“The Demon Bear Saga” involves the spectral, demonic beast born of the murder or Mirage’s parents. The beast hunts Mirage in her dreams and eventually becomes physical and nearly kills the young mutant. Its only through the aid of the other New Mutants, especially Magik’s and her sorcerous abilities, that the Demon Bear is defeated.

The Demon Bear was hinted at in a new character teaser for The New Mutants that was released by Fox yesterday.

“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.

How Boone’s proposed trilogy would be affected by the possible purchase of 20th Century Fox by Disney remains to be seen.

The New Mutants opens in theaters on April 13, 2018. Other upcoming X-Men movies include the untitled Deadpool sequel on June 1, 2018, X-Men: Dark Phoenix on November 2, 2018, and Gambit on February 14, 2019.