The New Mutants Star Henry Zaga Talks Sequel Plans

This past Friday, The New Mutants finally made its theatrical debut after spending the better part of three years in production limbo. The final Fox-made X-Men movie was stuck in theaters by Disney during a global pandemic, all-but confirming that the House of Mouse has no plans for the franchise going forward. This is likely the only time we’ll ever see this version of these characters on-screen, even though writer/director Josh Boone had an entire trilogy of stories planned.

The sequel to The New Mutants was supposedly going to be dealing a lot with Roberto, aka Sunspot’s backstory, with his father becoming the main villain of the film. ComicBook.com spoke with Henry Zaga, the actor who plays Sunspot in The New Mutants, to talk about what was next for his character, and the team as a whole.

“Well, the plan was to go to Rio and really dive into his background and what happened in his world,” Zaga told us. “Sunspot’s dad in the comics becomes a very difficult guy. He creates Hellfire Club, and there’s so much to explore there. I’m not a writer, so I can’t tell you what I would write, but there is so much there. By the way, Brazil’s one of the most beautiful places in the world, one of the most awesome locations to film, so there’s so much to offer. There could be some lighthearted, fun stuff too following this quite contained first movie. The sky is the limit. I think if fans show up and if people give it a huge thumbs up and call for another one, we’ll go and make it. It’s really up to everyone.”

Zaga went on to say that, as far as he knows, the possibilities for the future of The New Mutants still exist. If the movie performs really well long term, the chance that these characters could show up again technically still exists.

“Like I said, the sky’s the limit,” he added. “There is a possibility of joining the MCU, and there is a possibility of just being its own thing in its own timeline and narrative. It’s all up in the air. Fingers crossed.”

The New Mutants had a solid debut in its opening weekend, given the circumstances. It actually seemed to outperform most expectations as the first major film to hit theaters upon reopening. But even in these times, $7 million domestically on opening weekend isn’t going to be enough to warrant a follow-up film, especially when Disney has its own plan for the X-Men.

Sadly, Josh Boone’s plan for a New Mutants trilogy likely isn’t going to come to fruition.