The geek news webseries That Hashtag Show is at it again with another casting call that reveales character breakdowns for an upcoming Marvel project. After discovering the main cast of Marvel’s The Inhumans last week, today they’ve gotten their hands on the casting call for New Mutants, the next film in the X-Men franchises that promises to bring a whole new generation of heroes to the screen.
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The five main characters on the list shouldn’t be too much of a surprise to fans that have been following the pre-production of New Mutants, but the descriptions should still be fun. They’re casting young for the film, looking for 18 year-olds who can play 16 or 17 depending on the character.
Take a look at the breakdowns as listed (once again, they’re using codenames, but with a little knowledge of the property it’s extremely easy to figure out who’s who) and see who you’ll be seeing on the big screen soon.
“Chris” Aka Cannonball
[CHRIS] Male, 17 years old, Actor must be an adult (18 or over) or a legally emancipated minor; Tall, corn-fed Kentucky kid.
That’s the casting call for Sam “Cannonball” Guthrie, often seen as the leader of the team (though that role has rotated to many in the team). His superpower is an energy-propelled flight that can’t be stopped – when he’s flying, he’s invulnerable… though if he stops, he’s just an athletic human. Sam comes from a family with a potent mutant gene, with his little sister and little brother both manifesting theirs eventually as well, and another brother and sister having mutant powers – at least in an alternate timeline. So bringing him in certainly opens the floodgates of others they can introduce in the future. There’s also a complicated sub-group of mutants called the Externals, of which Sam may or may not belong to, but you probably don’t have to worry about that for the movie.
“Anna” aka Magik
[ANNA] Female, 17 years old, Actor must be an adult (18 or over) or a legally emancipated minor; Russian, sexy, with an obvious mean streak.
Illyana Rasputin is the little sister of another Russian mutant you may be familiar with, Colossus. Illyana’s initial mutant power was actually teleportation, which took her in and out of the Limbo dimension in order to get anywhere in time and space. Unlike Nightcrawler’s limited field-of-vision teleports, Illyana can take large groups across galaxies with a thought. The “Magik” part comes from her getting trapped in Limbo, where she learned control over the mystic arts, and even at one time was named Sorceress Supreme of that dimension, rivaling Dr. Strange in power (she has a much harder time controlling her magic in our dimension, however). She’s one of the most powerful characters in terms of sheer raw ability that has ever been in the Marvel universe, and carries around a sword made out of her own soul. Total badass. Previous rumors suggest she may have Lockheed, the alien dragon who is typically seen on the page with Kitty Pride, as a companion.
“Rob” aka Sunspot
[ROB] Male, 16 years old, Actor must be an adult (18 or over) or a legally emancipated minor; Brazilian, cool, confident and extremely handsome.
They barely tried to disguise this one, huh? Roberto da Costa is a Brazilian mutant who absorbs the power of the sun and uses it to radiate energy, fly (er- depending on who’s writing him/which story he’s in), and use superstrength. Yes, he’s basically the Human Torch, but with more control and super strength thrown into the mix. Roberto, unlike many mutants, was born into wealth and maintains an air of privelege despite the worldwide prejudice against mutants.
“Jessica” aka Wolfsbane
[JESSICA] Female, 16 years old, Actor must be an adult (18 or over) or a legally emancipated minor; British, punk rock shorn red hair, waif-like.
Ah, Rahne (pronounced “Rain”) Sinclair, a fan favorite. For lack of a better description, she’s the “Wolverine” of the team, as she’s literally feral (but not to be confused with the similarly powered mutant named Feral), scrappy, typically portrayed as pretty small in stature, and ready to run into battle. She’s essentially a werewolf, and can control her transformations from human to partially transformed, to full wolf. The “British” in the description is technically correct, though she’s much more specifically Scottish, and her character’s accent has been written into her appearances in Marvel Comics across the last 35 years.
Who Else is In It?
We will also see Dani Moonstar, the Native American mutant who has gone by Moonstar, Psyche, or Mirage with the ability to make people’s worst fears appear as interactive illusions, a role that That Hashtag Show reports is already cast.
Rumors and reports have also pointed to James McAvoy returning as Professor Charles Xavier, a natural fit to be training the next generation of mutants, Alexandra Shipp returning as Storm (presumably in an “upper classman” capacity), and the techno-organic alien Warlock should be joining up as well, as screenwriter and director Josh Boone teased his presence last year on instagram.
Who’s Missing?
From the original line-up of characters, only Karma, Xi’an Coy Manh, a Vietnamese mutant and their first leader with the power to possess people, is missing. That’s sure to disappoint fans looking for more Asian representation in film, especially in genre properties. Later members include Doug Ramsey, Cypher, who can speak any language (including electronic and body languages) and becomes fast friends (and at one point literally merges with) with Warlock, and Magma, Amara Aquilla who has lava powers.
